Dozens freed after being taken by separatists but principal and teacher still missing

Dozens of pupils kidnapped from a Presbyterian boarding school in Cameroon three days ago have been released, according to school and church authorities.

About 79 children were taken from their dormitories by armed men on Sunday night. Witnesses described being beaten, slapped and lectured on the living conditions at the school, before the attackers left with the principal, a teacher, a driver and the students. The principal and the teacher are apparently still missing.

The pupils appear to have been pawns in a conflict that has been raging in the English-speaking regions of the majority francophone central African country, although it is not clear exactly who took them and why.

They have now been freed, according to the governor of the English-speaking north-west region and the head of the Presbyterian church in Cameroon. Flanked by masked military men, they were taken to the local gendarmerie for medical checkups and to submit statements. They are expected to be presented at a press briefing on Wednesday, though they have not yet seen their parents.

The students were dropped off at another Presbyterian school in the town of Bafut, 12 miles from Bamenda where their school is based. It is unclear how the abductors could have transported them there at night, given that the military enforces a curfew between 6pm and 6am, and there are multiple checkpoints between Bafut and Bamenda.

Hundreds of parents had gathered at the school on Tuesday, anxiously waiting for news of their children, but despite rumours that they had been freed, the school refused to confirm or deny even which children had been kidnapped.

It later emerged that those taken on Sunday night were the second batch of abductees; 11 children were kidnapped on 31 October and later released, according to the Presbyterian church.

“The abductors asked for a huge ransom and the church was helpless,” said the head of the church, Samuel Fonki. “However, the students regained their freedom very traumatised.” He did not add whether the ransom was paid.

A video circulating purported to show the 11 pupils of the first batch of abductees being held in a hut. Each boy was made to say his name, parents’ names, school and year into the camera, and each said his kidnappers were “Amba boys” – separatists fighting for the secession of the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

“I was taken from school last night by the Amba boys,” one said, while a heavily accented man shouted at him to “talk louder”. The camera moved to the next boy.

“I was kidnapped by the Amba boys. I don’t know where I am.”

Some separatists said the government had carried out the kidnappings and framed them to make them look bad.

The conflict began as a peaceful protest for the use of English in anglophone courts and classrooms, and escalated when Cameroonian security forces launched a bloody crackdown.