Five kidnapped from Cameroon school

Three teachers, the headmaster and a deputy headmaster were kidnapped from a Cameroonian secondary school by gunmen in one of two English-speaking regions wracked by armed conflict between separatists and soldiers, a teachers’ union told AFP on Friday.

“An armed group broke into the Weh bilingual high school on Tuesday and kidnapped five people,” said Roger Kafo, general secretary of the National Union of Secondary School Teachers (Snaes).

Armed separatists regularly attack schools they accuse of teaching in French and kill public officials, including teachers, whom they accuse of “collaborating” with the central government in Yaoundé.

The students have been kidnapped and then released.

“At the moment we have no news of the hostages and none have been released,” added Kafo.

The hostages were the principal, the deputy principal and three teachers.

The northwestern and southwestern regions have been rocked by violence since 2017, when Anglophone militants declared independence from the majority Francophone country.

Yaoundé responded with strong measures.

Both separatists and government forces have been accused of atrocities in the fighting, which has claimed more than 3,000 lives and forced more than 700,000 to flee their homes.

Source Credit: TheGuardian