Authorities in Cameroon have rescued eight male students who were kidnapped by suspected Ambazonian separatists from a school in the Anglophone north-west region.
The armed assailants stormed the school in Esu area on Tuesday and set classrooms ablaze. They also beat up students before abducting them, Abdoullahi Aliou, a local administrator, said.
The principal’s offices were also torched during the attack while some school officials, including the deputy principal, were abducted to an unknown destination.
Some students who escaped after sustaining injuries were treated in a hospital not far from the school.
“The eight students who were kidnapped were all freed following the intervention of defence and security forces,” Aliou said.
The separatists have attacked students, teachers and schools that defy their orders.
Since 2017, the separatists have imposed and enforced a school boycott in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The separatists see schools as an arm of the French-speaking-majority’s rule.
Records from the UN shows that over 700,000 children have lost access to education after the closure of several schools since the conflict began six years ago.
Conflict monitoring groups estimate that about 6,000 people have been killed and thousands displaced in the crisis.