In western Cameroon, thirty women were kidnapped by pro-independence rebels nearly four days ago, the authorities have announced.
The prefecture of the Mezam department said in a statement that the women were “severely tortured and abducted by armed terrorists” in the village of Kedjom Keku.
The region, where armed separatist groups frequently kidnap civilians, mainly for ransom, has been experiencing conflict between the English-speaking minority separatists and the police for more than six years.
These armed rebels are described as terrorists by the authorities. These groups demand independence for the North-West and South-West regions, known as “Ambazonia”, which are mainly populated by the English-speaking minority.
There is still no news of the hostages who were kidnapped on Saturday morning, according to the communication service of the Ministry of Territorial Administration.
For its part, the Mezam prefecture said that the day before the kidnapping of these “elderly” women, they were organizing a peaceful march protesting against the exploitation and criminal activities of terrorists.
Indeed, the rebels, nicknamed “Amba Fighters” or “Amba Boys”, impose on civilians to pay “monthly taxes of 10,000 CFA francs (15 euros) for men and 5,000 for women (7.50 euros)”, revealed the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), a Yaoundé-based NGO which documents human rights violations in Africa.
The deadly conflict in the country’s two English-speaking regions has been ongoing since late 2016 between separatist rebels on one side and the army and police on the other, killing more than 6,000 people and forcing more than a million to move, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank.