An armed group in Cameroon’s separatist conflict-hit anglophone northwest abducted an 83-year-old British missionary and his assistant, his church group said Thursday.
The Catholic Mill Hill Missionary said Huub Welters and his assistant Henry Kang were “brutally abducted” Tuesday in the town of Bambui on their way to a project to build classrooms for underprivileged children in nearby Ilung.
“They were abducted by unknown armed men, and as of now, no one knows where they are,” the London-based missionary stated.
“What weighs heaviest on our hearts is his fragile health,” said the missionary of Welters. “He has already endured multiple joint replacements, a back operation, and now, on top of all that, the cruel mental and emotional suffering of being held hostage by those he only ever wanted to help.”
African Conscience, an NGO contacted by AFP, said it believed the pair had been abducted by separatist fighters.
“The authorities of the Archdiocese are currently working for their release,” the NGO added. “We pray. We plead. We wait.”
Kidnapping and violence has been common in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions, which are mainly populated by Cameroon’s English-speaking minority.
Separatists have regularly targeted and killed civil servants, including teachers, and elected officials accused of “collaboration” with the French-speaking central government in Yaounde. The army and police are accused of carrying out punitive raids against people they accuse of pro-separatist leanings.
The conflict erupted in late 2016 after President Paul Biya, who has ruled Cameroon unchallenged for 42 years, violently put down peaceful demonstrations by Anglophones in both regions.
At least 6,000 civilians have been killed by government forces and separatist fighters since the unrest began, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Mill Hill missionaries arrived in Uganda in 1895 and have been working in Cameroon since 1922.
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