Security forces in Cameroon are hunting a group of armed men who killed a police officer and abducted five teachers during a raid on a teacher training centre in the town of Wum, about 80 kilometres north of Bamenda, on Tuesday morning.
Regional governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique told AFP that the attackers infiltrated the centre and opened fire on the officer who tried to intervene, killing him instantly. The gunmen then seized five teachers and fled to an unknown location.
The Northwest Region, one of Cameroon’s two English‑speaking areas, has been the focus of a decade‑long separatist insurgency. Separatist leaders in the Northwest and Southwest have recently imposed a lockdown to disrupt the school year, heightening tensions over the francophone government’s control of education.
Since the 2016 crackdown on anglophone protests, the conflict has claimed at least 6,000 lives, displaced more than 330,000 people, and forced about 100,000 to flee to Nigeria, according to United Nations figures.
Security forces are currently canvassing the area for the attackers and seeking the safe return of the missing teachers. The situation remains fluid, with authorities urging calm as they investigate the incident.
