79 kidnapped students freed

YAOUNDE — The 79 students kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from a school in Cameroon have been released, but two of the three staff members abducted with them are still being held, a church official said Wednesday.

The students, aged between 11 and 17, were brought to a church near the regional capital of Bamenda, said Fonki Samuel Forba, moderator of the country’s Presbyterian Church.

“They look tired and psychologically tortured,” he said.

Forba pleaded with the kidnappers to free the remaining captives.

The students were abducted Sunday night in part of Cameroon that is beset by violence and instability by armed separatists who want to create a breakaway state called Ambazonia.