[Published: Wednesday November 07 2018]
 Cameroon: Bamenda students freed
BAMENDA, Cameroon 7 Nov (ANA) - Students kidnapped from a boarding school in Cameroon's North-West region have been freed, officials say.
The 79 students and three others were seized early on Sunday in the region's capital, Bamenda.
The school's principal, the driver, and a teacher are still in captivity, the BBC's Mayeni Jones reports.
The government and separatists in the English-speaking region have been accusing each other of being behind the kidnapping.
A video purportedly showing some of the kidnapped students from Bamenda's Presbyterian Secondary School has been shared online, sparking outrage.
An Anglophone separatist movement took up arms last year to demand independence for the North-West and South-West regions - the two English-speaking regions in a country where French is the most widely spoken official language.
The circumstances of the students' release are unclear but authorities say they are being questioned before being reunited with their parents.
According to the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, the students were abandoned in one of their buildings in the town of Bafut, about 24km (15 miles) from Bamenda.
The church has also revealed that Sunday's kidnapping was the second such case at the same school in less than a week.(FA)
The head of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, Reverend Fonki Samuel, has told BBC Newsday that he is not concerned who was behind the kidnapping of the more than 70 schoolchildren from a boarding school in Bamenda.
"We are just overwhelmed and happy that the children have been released. We do not care to know who kidnapped them, as much as we condemn kidnapping… all our joy is with their release. The release was done peacefully... They were brought into the church premises."
The principal of the school, a teacher and a driver were taken with the children on Sunday night. Rev Samuel says the driver was released while the principal and the teacher are still in captivity.(ANA)
FA/ANA/7 November 2018--------
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