Rt. Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba, PCC Moderator Rev. Fonki
Rt. Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, PCC, has appealed for the release of 11 teachers kidnapped by gunmen in Kumbo on Tuesday morning.
In a statement Tuesday evening, the leader of the PCC and proprietor of all PCC institutions said the gunmen stormed Presbyterian Primary School (P.S.) Kumbo and Presbyterian Comprehensive High School (P.C.H.S.) Kumbo where they dispersed schoolchildren before seizing eleven teachers into captivity.
“Today, Tuesday, November 3, 2020, a group of unidentified armed men stormed the campus of Presbyterian Primary School Kumbo and the day section of the Secondary School (PCHS Kumbo) situated in Kumbo Town at about 9:00 am,” Rt. Rev. Fonki said in a statement. “In the process, they carted away a total of 11 teachers and dispersed the children to go home unhurt.”
The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon condemned the act, describing it as one that continuously deprives children of their rights to education.
“The Church is hereby praying for the teachers, parents, children, and other stakeholders during this very trying moment. Our hope is that such ugly scenarios will one day come to an end by the Grace of God,” the PCC Moderator said. “The PCC hereby launches a passionate appeal to the perpetrators of this unholy act to release the captives as soon as possible.”
PCC Moderator reacts to the abduction of teachers in Kumbo (c) Archives
Two pro-separatist activists, Eric Tataw and Mark Bareta have blamed Tuesday’s kidnapping of teachers on separatist fighters in the area. Bui Warriors, an armed group loyal to Samuel Ikome Sako who heads a faction of the Ambazonia Interim Government, is said to have carried out the act.
Tataw and Bareta have both called for the unconditional release of the captives.
Cameroon-Info.Net remembers that on November 4, 2018, armed separatists stormed Presbyterian Secondary School, P.S.S., Nkwen, and seized 79 students, the principal, a teacher, and a driver.
On February 16 last year, gunmen entered the campus of Saint Augustine's College Nso in Kumbo, seized 170 students, two security guards, a teacher, and three of his children, and took them into captivity. They were only freed two days later following negotiations with church officials.
Tuesday’s incident at P.S. Kumbo comes exactly ten days after armed men attacked Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy Fiango, Kumba killing seven schoolchildren. At least a dozen other students were injured in the Kumba school attack.
Following the October 24 Kumba horrific school shooting, the government said it had ramped up security around schools to wade off any attack from armed separatists who have vowed to frustrate effective schooling for thousands of schoolchildren in the country’s North West and South West Regions.
Reports say defense and security forces are working towards liberating the hostages and bringing the perpetrators of the kidnappings before the law.
Militias who want to create an independent state called Ambazonia – a geographical allusion to Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions, began to emerge in 2017 after security forces responded violently to Common Law Lawyers and Anglophone Teachers’ protests.
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