Cameroon’s president calls on separatists to lay down arms

Cameroon’s president has called on Anglophone separatists in the country to lay down their arms, shortly before the release of 79 boys and girls who had been abducted in an Anglophone region in the French-speaking West African country.

President Paul Biya, who was sworn in for his new seventh term in office on Tuesday, ruled out independence for the restive, English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon but promised policies of decentralization.

“I have carefully examined the frustrations and aspirations of the great majority of our fellow citizens,” Biya said in his inauguration speech.

He nevertheless warned the separatists to renounce violence.

Referring to the rebels, who he said were plotting “terror and desolation,” he noted, “They need to know that they will face the rigor of the law and the determination of our defense and security forces. I appeal to them to lay down their arms.”

The 85-year-old president, who has ruled the West African nation for 35 years, however, made no mention of the 79 boys and girls who had been abducted in Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest Region, on the eve of his inauguration.

Meanwhile, Cameroon’s Communications Minister Bakary Tchiroma said on Wednesday that “all 79 students have been released.”

He confirmed the news to AFP, without providing details of the circumstances under which they were set free.

The children, along with the school principle and driver, had been abducted by assailants who entered the Presbyterian Secondary School in Bamenda and took them away on a school bus on Monday.

An army spokesman had blamed separatists for the kidnapping, while a separatist spokesman had denied involvement in the incident. He had accused the government of having kidnapped the kids to discredit the rebels.

SS