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More than 80 people, mostly school children, kidnapped in Cameroon
A traffic policewoman stands beside a traffic light in downtown Yaounde, Cameroon, October 9, 2018. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
05/11/2018
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - More than 80 people, mostly children, were kidnapped from a school in the city of Bamenda in western Cameroon early on Monday, government and military sources said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the abduction in the English-speaking region where separatists are fighting to form a breakaway state.
The separatists have imposed curfews and closed down schools as part of their protest against President Paul Biya's French-speaking government.
"In total 81 people were kidnapped including the [school] principal. They were taken to the bush," a military source told Reuters.
A government spokesman said it was keeping track of an event but that it could not comment further.
The separatist movement gathered pace in 2017 after a government crackdown on peaceful demonstrations. Many people have fled Bamenda and other centres to seek refuge in more peaceful Francophone regions.
(Reporting By Josiane Kouagheu; Writing by Edward McAllister and Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Andrew Heavens)
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