Five Catholic priests, a nun and two faithful were kidnapped by strangers who set fire to a church on Friday in western Cameroon plagued by a bloody war between English-speaking separatists and the army, the Catholic Church announced on Sunday.
The Nigerian nun is among nine people including five priests and three civilians who were abducted in an attack on the Mamfe church on Friday September 16. According to the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (CENC), the attackers who have not yet claimed membership in a separatist group demanded money to free their hostages.
“This is the first time we have seen such an attack. There have already been kidnappings of clerics in the past, but these were isolated cases. There, an attack like this which seems planned, the church set on fire, nine people kidnapped, it is a unique case, “said Reverend Humphrey Tatah Mbuy, spokesman for the episcopal conference.
For the time being, the government has not yet officially reacted to this attack. Kidnappings for ransom have become recurrent in English-speaking regions plagued by separatism. Sporadic attacks have shaken several localities in the English-speaking regions since September 5, the date of the start of the school year.