Around 3 a.m. on November 4, 2018, armed men kidnapped 79 students, a principal and three staff members from the Presbyterian Secondary School in Nkwen, a town near Bamenda, Cameroon.
All 79 students were released without ransom or prior notification on November 7, while the principal and the staff members were held for five more days.
[3] Separatists regard schools to be legitimate targets because the French language is taught as a mandatory subject, and have warned parents to keep their children at home for their own safety's sake.
79 students, a principal and three staff members were taken into the bush, then marched to Bafut, bypassing numerous security checkpoints that operate in and around Bamenda.
[2] Although the Cameroonian authorities had been unable to locate the students, they nevertheless took some credit for the release, claiming the kidnappers gave up due to fears of being surrounded.