A suspect, said to be a separatist fighter, has been arrested and charged for taking part in the massacre of school children at a bilingual school in the city of Kumba, in the Cameroon.
On October 24 nine gunmen arriving on motorcycles stormed the Ministry of Education-supervised Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in the city of Kumba, in the Anglophone Southwest Region, killing at least six school students and injuring at least 13 others.
The government of Cameroon and the separatist Ambozonia Interim Government, which is fighting for a separate Anglophone state, both blamed each other for the attack.
An official nationwide day of mourning followed the attack, with street demonstrations and services in mosques and churches in towns across the country.
Two weeks later unidentified “assailants” briefly kidnapped 11 teachers from two church-run schools near the town of Kumbo in the Northwest Region, another Anglophone area.
The 11 teachers were freed shortly after their capture, following pressure from church leaders and teachers’ unions. Abadolu news agency quoted Samuel Fonki, head of the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, as saying that no ransom had been paid.
Since 2017 the insurgency, seeking independence for the West African nation’s English-speaking regions, has been calling for a boycott of education in Anglophone areas.
