YAOUNDE, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- At least 11 primary school staff members were kidnapped by armed separatists on Tuesday in Kumbo, a town in restive Anglophone Northwest region of Cameroon, according to local authorities.
Students were studying at Presbyterian Primary School Kumbo, when armed separatists stormed the school premises and kidnapped teachers and other members of the management staff, according to the school authorities.
"They (armed separatists) initially abducted the teachers and the pupils and later released the children, while warning them to go home and never come back to school again," a local official who opted for anonymity told Xinhua.
The army said, a search and rescue mission of the teachers is in progress in the locality.
Some separatist leaders including Eric Tataw who is advocating for safe resumption of schools, has demanded the "immediate" release of the teachers.
Schools resumed in Cameroon in October but some armed separatists have threatened on social media to paralyse school activities, stressing that only "inclusive dialogue and ceasefire" will assure the safety of schools in the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest where they have been clashing with government forces since 2017 in a bid to create a new nation they call "Ambazonia."
In late October, seven secondary school students were gunned while they were studying in a classroom in Southwest region. Enditem
