World

Cameroon kidnap: 170 students freed

February 19, 2019 5:09 am

Cameroonian students and school staff who were kidnapped on Saturday have been freed, the Bishop of Kumbo has told the BBC.

A total of 176 people, mostly students, were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen at Saint Augustin’s College in Kumbo, in the North West region of Cameroon.

They were released on Sunday after negotiations.

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It is the largest school kidnapping in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions since separatist unrest began in 2017.

Human Rights Watch has accused rebel groups of being behind the kidnapping but they have not yet commented.

They have said previous abductions were staged by the government to damage their reputation.

The gunmen entered the campus of Saint Augustine’s College Nso on Saturday morning and seized 170 students, two security guards, a teacher and three of his children, the Diocesan Director of Communications said in a statement.

Rev Elvis Nsaikila added that the authorities of the boarding school had