An 83-year-old British missionary and his assistant have been freed, two days after being abducted by armed men in Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.
Brother Huub Welters and Henry Kang were seized Tuesday in Bambui while en route to Ilung, where they were helping build classrooms for underprivileged children.
The Catholic Mill Hill Missionary group confirmed their release Thursday, describing the ordeal as a “brutal abduction” but reporting both men were unharmed.
Photographs taken by Father Innocent Akum, the local Mill Hill Superior, documented their return to Mill Hill House in Bamenda.
An NGO, African Conscience, told AFP the pair was likely taken by separatist fighters active in the region’s violent Anglophone conflict.
Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest, home to its English-speaking minority, have been engulfed in bloodshed since 2016.
Rebels frequently abduct or kill civil servants and teachers, accusing them of collaborating with the French-speaking central government in Yaoundé.
Security forces have also been blamed for retaliatory raids and human rights abuses in communities suspected of aiding separatists.
The conflict began when President Paul Biya, in power for over four decades, forcefully suppressed peaceful protests by English-speaking citizens.
According to Human Rights Watch, the ongoing violence has claimed over 6,000 civilian lives.
Mill Hill missionaries, who have served in Cameroon since 1922, expressed relief at the safe return of their colleagues and called for peace in the troubled region.
