Bamenda, Cameroon, Nov 6, 2018 / 11:49 am
Armed separatists kidnapped 79 students from a Christian boarding school in Cameroon Monday.
The principal, a teacher, and one other staff member were taken hostage Nov. 5 with the students aged 10 to 14 from the Presbyterian Secondary School in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon's Northwest region.
A Catholic residing in Bamenda told CNA that "this hostage crisis," along with the recent killings of a seminarian and U.S. missionary have "left all denominations in mourning and wondering when this crisis will end."
Violence in Cameroon's Northwest region has grown since 2016 as a separatist group from Cameroon's English-speaking minority continues to clash with the nation's security forces. The armed secessionists have demanded independence for the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon, citing their lack of political influence in the largely Francophone country.