An 83-year-old British missionary and his assistant are brutally abducted by an unknown group of armed men in Cameroon, said his church group.
Huub Welters and assistant Henry Kang were captured on Tuesday in Bambui – a city in the separatist conflict -hit Anglophone northwest of the country.
The couple was on the way to a project to build classrooms for disadvantaged children in nearby Ilung, according to the Catholic Mill Hill Missionary.
In an update on Wednesday, the London -based Catholic Missionary said that Mr. Welters had spent his first night in captivity, but they had 'no idea' where he was.
They released their concern about his 'fragile health' and said that he recently undergone a series of joint replacements and a back operation.
African Conscience, an NGO contacted by AFP, said it believed that the couple had been abducted by separatist hunters.
“The authorities of the Archdiocese are currently working for their release,” the NGO added. “We pray. We argue. We wait. '
Kidnapping and violence is common in the northwestern and southwestern regions of Cameroon, which are mainly populated by an English -language minority.
Huub Welters (photo) and his assistant Henry Kang were 'brutally abducted' on Tuesday in the city of Bambui in Cameroon
Shown: Henry Kang who has been abducted by an armed group of men in Cameroon
Depicted: the Ilung -Building place where the couple was on their way to
Separatists have regularly focused on and kill civil servants, including teachers, and chosen officials who are accused of 'collaboration' with the French -speaking central government in Yaounde. The army and the police are accused of performing punitive raids against people they accuse of pro-paratist tendencies.
The conflict broke out at the end of 2016 after President Paul Biya, who ruled Cameroon for 42 years, asked violently peaceful demonstrations by anglophones in both regions.
At least 6,000 citizens have been killed by government forces and separatist hunters since the unrest, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Mill Hill -shipments arrived in Uganda in 1895 and have been working in Cameroon since 1922.
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