Cameroon abduction: Search under way for kidnapped children
Seventy-nine children and three staff were kidnapped by gunmen on Monday.
Authorities in Cameroon have launched a major search-and-rescue
operation after gunmen kidnapped 79 students and three members of school
staff.
Deben Tchoffo, governor of the restive North West Region, said students
from a Presbyterian school in Nkwen village near Bamenda were abducted
on Monday along with their principal, a teacher and a driver.
An army spokesperson blamed separatists for the kidnapping. A separatist
spokesperson denied involvement and said government soldiers carried it
out, as a ploy to discredit them.
Samuel Fonki, a minister of the Presbyterian Church, said he had been
mediating with the kidnappers for the children's release. He also said
separatists were responsible.
On Tuesday, about 200 parents gathered outside the school, waiting to
hear if their children were among those who had been abducted or had
remained unharmed at the school.
Authorities denied parents access to the school, according to six parents and a security guard who spoke to Reuters news agency.
A video purportedly of the kidnapped children was released on social
media by "Amba boys", a reference to the state of Ambazonia that armed
separatists are trying to establish in Cameroon's northwest and
southwest regions, The Associated Press news agency reported.
In the video, the kidnappers force several students to give their names
and the names of their parents. The children say they were kidnapped by
the Amba boys, and they do not know where they are being held.
"We shall only release you after the struggle. You will be going to
school now here," say the men suspected to be the kidnappers.
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