Cameroon school kidnap: More than 70 pupils seized in Bamenda

Date:

Dozens of people, mostly school pupils, have been kidnapped from a boarding school in the west of Cameroon.

In the video released of the children the man holding the camera turns it on himself at the end
In the video released of the children the man holding the camera turns it on himself at the end

At least 78 students and three others, including the principal, were seized early on Monday morning in Bamenda, the capital of the North-West region, a government official has told the BBC.

Regional governor Adolphe Lele L’Afrique blamed separatist militias.

Cameroon’s North-West and South-West regions have been hit by a secessionist rebellion in recent years.

Militias, who have been demanding the independence of the two English-speaking regions, have called for a school boycott.

But no single group has said it carried out the kidnapping at Bamenda’s Presbyterian Secondary School, which has pupils aged between 10 and 14.

A video of some of the children, all boys, believed to have been filmed by one of the kidnappers, is being shared on social media.

The students, crammed into a tiny room, all look nervous as the person holding the camera orders them to say their names and where they are from.

They also repeat the phrase: “I was taken from school last night by the Amba boys, I don’t know where I am.”

Amba is short for Ambazonia, the name of the new country that the separatists want to create.

‘Praying for the kidnapped’

The moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, the Right Reverend Fonki Samuel Forba told the BBC that he had spoken to the kidnappers.

“They don’t want any ransom. All they want is for us to close the schools. We have promised to close down the schools,” he told the BBC.

“We hope and pray they release the kids and the teachers,” he added.

It is not the first time students have been abducted in the area, known to be a stronghold of separatist fighters, reports the BBC’s Ngala Killian Chimtom.

On 19 October, five students of the Atiela Bilingual High School were taken by unidentified gunmen. Their whereabouts are still unknown.

The separatists say that the Cameroon school system suppresses the English-speaking system that the North-West and South-West regions inherited from the British.

Separatist rebellion

The militias, who want to create Ambazonia, began to emerge in 2017 after a security force crackdown on mass protests, led by lawyers and teachers, over the government’s alleged failure to give enough recognition to the English legal and education systems in the North-West and South-West.

The government was accused of relying heavily on people trained in the French legal and educational tradition to work in key posts and generally marginalising Cameroon’s English-speaking minority, who make up about 20% of the population.

President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, was recently re-elected for a seventh term with more than 70% of the vote.

Opposition parties allege that the poll was rigged, but legal attempts to overturn the result failed.

Africa's borders were "carved up" up by colonial powers
Africa’s borders were “carved up” up by colonial powers
  • Colonised by Germany in 1884
  • British and French troops force Germans to leave in 1916
  • Cameroon is split three years later – 80% goes to the French and 20% to the British
  • French-run Cameroon becomes independent in 1960
  • Following a referendum, the (British) Southern Cameroons join Cameroon, while Northern Cameroons join English-speaking Nigeria. BBC   News.

Subscribe

Popular

More like this
Related

Veteran South African actor Sello Maake kaNcube defends ‘bogus’ doctorate

Veteran actor Sello Maake KaNcube has come out in defense of a honorary doctorate that was bestowed on him by Trinity International Bible University, an institution that South Africa's Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande has said is not registered and is thus not fit to give out such recognition.

Kelly Khumalo wanted to see a sangoma after Senzo Meyiwa shooting

Kelly Khumalo, the girlfriend of slain South African football star Senzo Meyiwa, reportedly wanted to see a sangoma following his death from a fatal shooting.

Domestic worker sues Pitso Mosimane and his wife for R5,7m over injuries

South African football coach Pitso Mosimane and his wife are being sued for R5,7million by their former domestic worker after she claims to have sustained injuries that left her borderline disabled and unable to bear children while working for them.

South Africa election: ANC loses battle for Zuma’s MK party name and logo

South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) has lost a legal bid to stop a new party from using the name and logo of its former armed wing. The governing ANC had argued that uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), headed by ex-President Jacob Zuma, had breached trademark law.