More than 70 children were kidnapped from a boarding school in Cameroon on Monday.
Approximately 79 children and three adults were taken from a Presbyterian school in Bamenda, the capital of the country's Northwest Region, according to the BBC. Regional governor Adolphe Lele L'Afrique blamed separatist groups for the crime.
The kidnappers posted a video of the children on social media. The students, aged 10 to 14 years old, were asked to give their names and those of their parents.
They were also told to say "I was taken from school last night by the Amba Boys; I don't know where I am."
The Amba Boys explained their plans for the children on the video.
“We shall only release you after the struggle. You will be going to school now here,” they said.
One of the school's students who managed to escape the armed men described the kidnapping as brutal.
"One of my friends, they beat him mercilessly," the student said. "All I could think about was just to stay quiet. They threatened to shoot some people … all the big boys they rounded up, and the small ones they left them behind."
Right Reverend Fonki Samuel Forba, a top church official in Cameroon, claims he spoke to the kidnappers.
"They don't want any ransom," Forba said. "All they want is for us to close the schools. We have promised to close down the schools. We hope and pray they release the kids and the teachers."
The Amba Boys are a group from the predominately English-speaking part of the country who want to establish their nation, Ambazonia. The separatists have accused the French-speaking government of marginalizing Anglophones, who comprise 20 percent of Cameroon's population.
The separatists have destabilized the English-speaking region of the country. Anyone who gets in their way is killed or tortured. This wasn’t the first kidnapping undertaken by separatists, but it has been the largest one to date.
Last week, a separatist militia attacked a state-run rubber plantation, according to The Associated Press. The fighters severed the fingers of the workers because they defied the group’s instructions to stay away from the farm.
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