Cameroon’s military has rescued 12 European tourists who were taken hostage in the Southwest Region, where Anglophone militants are campaigning for an independent state, AFP news agency quotes the government as saying.
The seven Swiss and five Italian nationals “were taken hostage by a band of armed terrorists” in the Nguti area of the south-west Region and were freed on Monday following a “special operation,” a communication ministry statement said.
The 12 were abducted while they were on their way to the Twin Lakes tourist site, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, six municipal councillors in the neighbouring north-west Region, which has also been hit by unrest, were also freed in operations that led to “tens of assailants neutralised, huge stocks of weapons and ammunitions as well as large quantities of drug(s) seized”, AFP news agency quotes the ministry as saying.
The ministry did not say when the abductions took place.
Separatists are demanding an independent state in the two mainly English-speaking regions, alleging that they are marginalised under a government dominated by French speakers.
Source : BBC
