Anglophone crisis: Kidnapped GBHS Kumba Students Freed After Huge Ransom

Gunmen suspected to be separatist fighters have freed some four students of Government Bilingual High School (GBHS) Up Station Kumba kidnapped at about 8am Tuesday 18 May 2021. The incident which occurred outside the college located at the government residential area with several military barracks. 

When news of the incident broke, many thought it was primary school pupils who had been kidnapped since written phase of the government common entrance examinations and its French equivalent was ongoing on the school campus and other parts of the town.   

“There was no child writing common entrance who was kidnapped yesterday. On the contrary, there were students who were coming to GBHS Up Station who were kidnaped. Four of them were kidnaped in the morning. By then, the common entrance was already going on,” explained Ali Anougo, Division Officer of Kumba I Subdivision.

“They came and shot directly into a classroom behind GHBS,” Anougo revealed, adding, that there were pupils writing the French equivalent of the government common entrance on that campus while their English-speaking peers were writing in other areas in town. 

He noted the acts from the separatist might have been to disrupt the writing exercise but unfortunately for them, the exercise continued without any major problem. Frustrated after failing to disrupt the exercise, the gunmen then kidnapped some four students of forms three and four who were heading to the campus. 

He said the students were whisked to the unknown in the forest but fortunately released at about 5pm same day. The DO said the students released after payment of ransom whose amount he said wasn’t disclosed. 

Observers have been asking questions how a school located within military barracks at the Kumba GRA could be attacked and students kidnapped without the knowledge of the defense and security forces. 

Kumba it should be noted has been a hotspot in the ongoing armed conflict rocking the North West and South West regions. Many schools have been attacked, students and pupils kidnapped and others burned. Last October 2020, gunmen attacked a college in Fiango Kumba and murdered seven students, injuring several others. 

By Doh Bertrand Nua