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Cameroon frees European hostages taken in Anglophone area | Cameroon frees European hostages taken in Anglophone area |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Eighteen hostages seized in south-western Cameroon have been freed in a military operation. | |
A government statement said 12 Europeans and six Cameroonians were seized by "secessionist terrorists". | |
It occurred in a restive English-speaking region where protesters say they are marginalised by the country's Francophone majority. | |
The government said the seven Swiss and five Italians were on their way to a tourist site when they were abducted. | |
In recent months separatists in Cameroon's two mainly English-speaking areas - the North-West and South-West regions - have been demanding independence. | In recent months separatists in Cameroon's two mainly English-speaking areas - the North-West and South-West regions - have been demanding independence. |
No group has come out to say it had carried out the abduction but it comes a month after a Tunisian engineer was killed by his captors in the same region, the BBC's Africa Security Correspondent Tomi Oladipo reports. | |
However, a group linked to the main Anglophone secessionist group - the Ambazonian Defence Force (ADF), which has been battling security forces, has denied that it had taken part in the abduction, news agency Reuters reports. | |
It quotes Cho Ayaba, a leader of the Ambazonian Governing Council, as saying: "ADF does not take hostages. ADF arrest enablers and collaborators and does not arrest foreign nationals." | |
The recent unrest in the English-speaking region sprang from months of clashes between residents and security forces over what residents say is marginalisation by the French majority. | |
Educators and lawyers in the English-speaking regions have been opposed to the employment of teachers who only speak French in technical schools. Lawyers are also opposed to the use of French in court sessions. | |
President Paul Biya's hard stance has been met by calls for secessions with proponents calling for the creation of an independent state called Ambazonia. | |
Cameroon was colonised by Germany and then split into British and French areas after World War One. | |
Following a referendum, British-run Southern Cameroons joined the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon in 1961, while Northern Cameroons voted to join English-speaking Nigeria. |
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