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.

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.

(Reuters)