36 people abducted in restive Anglophone region by gunmen in Cameroon

In Cameroon, 36 passengers were abducted in restive Anglophone region on Tuesday by gunmen along the Buea-Kumba highway in the Southwest.

The area is one of the two war-torn English-speaking regions of Cameroon.  According to the bus drivers who were let off, passengers were ordered to step down and hand over their identification cards.

They were then taken to the bush to an unknown destination. Movement along the highway has been halted and the search for the hostages has been launched, according to local authorities.

Cases of



kidnapping are on the rise amid escalating conflict in the troubled English-speaking regions of the largely French-speaking African country.

In November, a group of 79 school children was kidnapped in Bamenda, the most populous city of Northwest, another English-speaking region.  The Cameroonian government has blamed armed separatists for the rampant abductions.

The separatists are fighting to secede from Cameroon and create a nation called "Ambazonia" in the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest.