79 Students Kidnapped From Boarding School in Cameroon
79 Students have been kidnapped from a boarding school in Cameroon. A local government official told CNN Monday armed men have kidnapped 79 students from a boarding school in Cameroon. Armed
79 Students have been kidnapped from a boarding school in Cameroon.
A local government official told CNN Monday armed men have kidnapped 79 students from a boarding school in Cameroon.
Armed men took the students from Presbyterian Secondary School in Bamenda, overwhelming a guard and forcing him to take them to the sleeping children. Louis Marie Begne the local spokesman for Cameroon’s Northwest government reported the following events.
Begne told the media a crisis meeting occurred Monday and the Cameroonian police, army, and military are searching for the children. Helicopters, an elite military unit the Rapid Intervention Battalion are currently on the lookout as well.
The principal of the school kidnapped too, but has since been let go and told not to return to the school. Begne believes the children have been split up into groups. Officials have no clue to who the kidnappers could be at this point.
Anglophone Crisis
Cameroon is currently under pressure from separatists fighting to form an independent state called Ambazonia. They are waging war in the English speaking provinces. Several separatist groups have denied their involvement so far.
The Anglophone crisis has caused violence to spike in the last year. 400 people have been killed according to the Amnesty International.
260 security incidents were reported in September by the A.I. and included kidnappings of civilians and violence between armed forces and separatists.
Local officials report no one was killed during the kidnappings. More to come on this story as we wait for details to develop.
