Russia condemns the kidnapping of about 80 children from a college in the city of Bamenda in northwestern Cameroon, where the country's English-speaking minority lives, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th November, 2018) Russia condemns the kidnapping of about 80 children from a college in the city of Bamenda in northwestern Cameroon, where the country's English-speaking minority lives, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to media reports, about 80 people, most of them schoolchildren, were abducted on Monday. Armed men broke into a college dormitory and took 78 students and two administration officials with them. It is not yet known who is responsible for the kidnapping.
"We strongly condemn this crime against innocent civilians, the vast majority of whom are children. We stand for the immediate release of all hostages and their safe return to their families," the statement read.
The Russian Foreign Ministry believed that this unprecedented incident was convincing evidence of the grave problems caused by separatism and extremism in Cameroon.
"We believe that the dangerous deepening of the crisis in the English-speaking provinces of this African country can be prevented by political means, through an open, inclusive dialogue aimed at achieving peace and national accord in Cameroon as soon as possible," the ministry stressed.
The criminal situation in Cameroon, including its capital, has recently deteriorated, in particular, due to an influx of refugees from different regions of the country. There is an increase in banditry and robbery cases recorded in areas previously considered prosperous, including in the vicinity of government agencies and foreign diplomatic missions.
The English-speaking minority in Cameroon has long been seeking greater autonomy and been met with constant confrontations and a brutal crackdown by the authorities of the predominantly French-speaking country.
