Seventy-nine students were kidnapped Monday on the eve of the swearing-in of Paul Biya’s president in northwest Cameroon, the largest kidnapping in the English-speaking area since the beginning of the conflict with armed separatists .
In addition to students, the principal of the Presbyterian Secondary School of Bamenda, regional capital of the Northwest), a teacher and a driver were also kidnapped by unidentified gunmen, a government source told reporters.
“The search for the hostages has been launched,” said this source who spoke after a crisis meeting.
The abduction of students was confirmed to media by a source close to the school.
“The establishment is protected by the security forces. We do not have access,” said the source close.
President Biya, 85, and in power since 1982, was re-elected for a seventh term with 71.28% of the vote. He must take an oath Tuesday.
In the two English-speaking regions of the North-West and South-West, an unprecedented socio-political crisis took place at the end of 2016. At the end of 2017, it turned into an armed conflict.
Clashes between the army and separatists, grouped in scattered groups in the equatorial forest, have occurred there almost every day for several months.
The separatists have declared a boycott of schools, believing that the French school system marginalizes English-speaking students.
There have been numerous attacks by armed separatists on schools since the beginning of the conflict. In mid-October, six students were kidnapped in a high school attack in Bamenda, according to concordant sources. The authorities had denied.
On the first day of school in early September, a school director was murdered, a teacher mutilated and several schools attacked.
The armed conflict intensified in the northwestern region after several months of calm, with clashes concentrated in the southwestern region during the summer.
On 30 October, an American missionary was shot dead in his vehicle in Bambui, a suburb of Bamenda. The reasons for his assassination remain unknown, but the state has accused the “terrorists” of being at the origin of his death while Washington spoke of “crossfire”.
More than 175 members of the Cameroonian Defense and Security Forces have lost their lives in the conflict, as well as more than 400 civilians, according to NGOs.
In the area, more than 300,000 people have fled the violence, mostly in the bush and in major cities in neighboring areas, and some in neighboring Nigeria.
In the two English-speaking regions, the participation rate in the presidential election of 7 October was very low (5% in the North-West and 15% in the South-West), but Paul Biya obtained in each of them more than two-thirds of the votes. votes cast.
Candice Smith is a reporter for Oracle Savvy. After graduating from UCLA, Candice got an internship at a morning radio show and worked as a journalist and producer. Candice has also worked as a columnist for the The Sacramento Bee. Candice covers economy and community events for Oracle Savvy.
