Police officer killed as five teachers kidnapped in Cameroon’s Northwest

Five teachers were kidnapped and a police officer was reportedly shot dead during an armed raid on a teacher training centre in Wum, Cameroon’s Northwest Region, on Tuesday morning.

Northwest Region Governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique told AFP that armed individuals infiltrated the centre, about 80 kilometres north of Bamenda. A police officer who attempted to intervene was killed, and the attackers took five teachers to an unknown location.

Security forces were searching for the attackers on Wednesday. Their identity and affiliation had not been established, while the location and condition of the teachers remained unknown.

The Northwest Region is one of Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions affected by an armed conflict between separatist groups and government forces since 2017. The conflict followed a government crackdown on anglophone protests in late 2016.

Civilians have faced kidnappings for ransom, extortion and other violence. The United Nations estimates that at least 6,000 people have died since 2016, while more than 330,000 people were internally displaced in Cameroon last year and about 100,000 fled to Nigeria.

Local reports said separatist leaders in the Northwest and Southwest regions had announced a lockdown intended to disrupt the school year. The reported lockdown was not independently detailed in the source.