Cameroon Army Free 18 Hostages

Cameroon’s army has freed 18 hostages, including seven Swiss and five Italian tourists, who were kidnapped by English-speaking separatists in the restive southwest region, the government spokesman said. Issa Tchiroma Bakary said on state television late on Tuesday that the 18 hostages—who also included six Cameroonian municipal officials—had been abducted on Monday and were freed hours later by the army’s elite Rapid Intervention Batallion, Reuters reported. The group was abducted on its way to the Twin Lakes in Mount Manengouba National Park, about 300 km (186 miles) northwest of the capital Yaounde, he said. The kidnapping occurred on the same day that Prime Minister Philemon Yang was chairing a meeting with the tourism board to promote tourism in the Central African country, state television said on Wednesday. Bakary said the group was kidnapped by “secessionist terrorists”, a term used by the government to refer to the English-speaking separatists who want to carve out a new state called Ambazonia from mainly French-speaking Cameroon. The Ambazonian Defence Force (ADF), the main Anglophone separatist group battling state security forces, denied any involvement in the kidnappings.