Separatists kidnap 79 students amid rising violence

YAOUNDE, Cameroon — Armed separatists have kidnapped at least 79 students and their principal from a school in Nkwen village in Cameroon’s restive northwest region, a governor said Monday.

The kidnapping late Sunday took place near Bamenda, the capital of the troubled Englishspeaking region, according to Governor Deben Tchoffo.

A video purportedly of the kidnapped children was released on social media by men who call themselves “Amba boys,” a reference to the state of Ambazonia that armed separatists are trying to establish in Cameroon’s Anglophone northwest and southwest regions.

In the video, the kidnappers force several young male students to give their names and the names of their parents. The children say they were kidnapped late Sunday by the armed men and they don’t know where they are being held.

The men who identify themselves on the video as the kidnappers say they will only release the children when they achieve what they want.

“We shall only release you after the struggle. You will be going to school now here,” say the men. The video could not be independently verified, but parents have said on social media that they recognize their children in the video.

Hundreds have been killed in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions in the past year, where violence between armed separatists and the military has increased since a government crackdown against protesters in the northwest and southwest regions. The demonstrators claim that as the English-speaking minority they are marginalized by the French-speaking government.

Violent separatists have since taken up arms to destabilize the Anglophone regions to win independence for the areas they want to declare a separate state, which they call Ambazonia. They have mounted attacks against civilians who do not support their cause.

There have been other kidnappings from schools in the region, but this is the largest number kidnapped at once. Separatists also have killed teachers who defied instructions to keep schools closed, and they have torched at least a hundred schools.

Last week separatist militants attacked workers on a state-run rubber plantation in southwestern Cameroon, chopping off their fingers because the men had defied an order to stay away from the farms.