An 83-year-old British missionary and his assistant have been brutally abducted by an unknown group of armed men in Cameroon, his church group has said.
Huub Welters and his assistant Henry Kang were captured on Tuesday in Bambui – a town located in the country’s separatist conflict-hit anglophone northwest.
The pair were on their way to a project to build classrooms for underprivileged children in nearby Ilung, according to The Catholic Mill Hill Missionary.
In an update on Wednesday, the London-based Catholic missionary said Mr Welters had spent his first night in captivity but they had ‘no idea’ where he was.
They raised concerns about his ‘fragile health’, saying he has recently undergone a series of joint replacements and a back operation.
African Conscience, an NGO contacted by AFP, said it believed the pair had been abducted by separatist fighters.
‘The authorities of the Archdiocese are currently working for their release,’ the NGO added. ‘We pray. We plead. We wait.’
Kidnapping and violence has been common in Cameroon’s northwest and southwest regions, which are mainly populated by an English-speaking minority.
Huub Welters (pictured) and his assistant Henry Kang were ‘brutally abducted’ Tuesday in the town of Bambui in Cameroon
Pictured: Henry Kang who has been abducted by an armed group of men in Cameroon
Pictured: The Ilung building site where the pair were on the their way to
Separatists have regularly targeted and killed civil servants, including teachers, and elected officials accused of ‘collaboration’ with the French-speaking central government in Yaounde. The army and police are accused of carrying out punitive raids against people they accuse of pro-separatist leanings.
The conflict erupted in late 2016 after President Paul Biya, who has ruled Cameroon unchallenged for 42 years, violently put down peaceful demonstrations by Anglophones in both regions.
At least 6,000 civilians have been killed by government forces and separatist fighters since the unrest began, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Mill Hill missionaries arrived in Uganda in 1895 and have been working in Cameroon since 1922.
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