Cameroon kidnappings: All 79 students released by captors
79 school students who had been abducted from Nkwen village in Cameroon's troubled northwestern region have been released, according to Issa Bakary Tchiroma, Cameroon's communications minister. However, the circumstances under which they were released was not revealed by the minister. The kidnappings were carried out by armed separatists, and took place on Sunday. Here are the details.
Details of the kidnapping
After the kidnappings took place on Sunday, a video, purportedly of the kidnapped children, was circulated on social media. In the video, some of the children are seen as being asked by kidnappers to reveal their names, and their parents' names. The children also said in the video that they didn't know that they were being held.
The school's principal and two others have been held back
According to reports by the BBC and Reuters, the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon said that the students had been abandoned in a building in the town of Bafut. However, priests who were conducting negotiations with the captors said that the school's principal, a school bus driver, and a teacher have been held back by the captors.
The demands of the armed separatists
The aforementioned video had been released by group that calls themselves the Amba Boys, which is a reference to 'Ambazonia', a state that armed separatists are trying to establish in Cameroon's northwest and southwest regions. In the video, the members of the group had said that the children would only get released "after the struggle". No other demand was made.
The ongoing conflict has killed hundreds over a year
Over the past year, conflict between the armed separatists and the government has resulted in hundreds getting killed in the multicultural Anglophone regions of Cameroon. The deaths have particularly increased in light of a recent crackdown by the government on English-speaking protesters in Cameroon's northwest and southwest, who claim that they are marginalized by the French-speaking government.
