YAOUNDE, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Nine school children and one teacher who were kidnapped on Tuesday from a private school in Kumba, a town in Southwest, one of the two strife-torn anglophone regions of Cameroon have been released, Chamberlin Ntou'ou Ndong, senior divisional officer for Meme division told Xinhua on Wednesday.
Local residents initially said, about 15 students and one teacher were abducted but Ndong insisted the information was false.
"The students have been released. The teacher has been released though he is wounded. All of them are free and with their families." Ndong said, adding the children were kidnapped by armed separatists whom he called "assailants." Separatists have not claimed responsibility for the abduction.
He said four separatists were killed during the rescue mission conducted by government forces.
"They (separatists) should surrender. The state is ready to support them financially if they surrender" Ndong said.
It was the second abduction of students this month in Cameroon's troubled Anglophone zone, where armed separatists have ordered the closure of schools in the regions.
In early November, the government accused separatists of kidnapping 79 children of a private school in the Northwest. They were released a few days later. Separatists, however, insisted that most of the kidnappings were staged by the government to tarnish their image internationally.
Local authorities said separatists had burned more than 100 schools that refused to close down.
Since November last year, government forces have been clashing with armed separatist forces who want the two regions to secede from the majority French-speaking nation and form a new country called "Ambazonia".
