DAKAR, Senegal — Dozens of students kidnapped from a boarding school in a restive region of Cameroon were freed late Tuesday after being held hostage for about two days, according to local and military officials.

The circumstances of the mass kidnapping were mired in confusion, but more than 70 teenage students were dropped off at the campus of their Presbyterian Secondary School by masked men around 11 p.m., said Samuel Fonki, a pastor in Bamenda who works with the school.

He added that no ransom had been paid for the release of the children, who were taken sometime Sunday or Monday from their campus in Nkwen, a small village outside Bamenda, where separatists are waging a violent battle for independence from Cameroon.

Mr. Fonki said the students all appeared healthy and were immediately taken to security forces for questioning. He said a teacher and a principal were still being held captive, but military officials indicated that all hostages were freed. It remains unclear who abducted the hostages, but the military said they had been abandoned by their captors after the area was sealed off by soldiers.