An official and a journalist were kidnapped on Saturday in Bamenda, the largest city in Cameroon’s crisis-hit Anglophone region of Northwest, according to local authorities.

Tebeck Mbah, regional manager of state-owned Cameroon Telecommunications, and Pamela Miye, journalist of state media Cameroon Tribune, were abducted by armed separatists, according to security reports.

“They came to our compound well armed, threatened to kill him and took him to unknown destination. We were really frightened,” a family member of Mbah who asked not to be named said.

Authorities said the search for the kidnapped was in progress.

Kidnappings have been rampant in the two restive Anglophone regions since an armed conflict started in 2017.

On Sept. 10, Cameroonian President Paul Biya called for a national dialogue to resolve the crisis.

Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions are English-speaking, while the rest of about 80 percent of the country is French-speaking. Separatists in the two English-speaking regions have been fighting government forces in an effort to create an independent nation they call “Ambazonia.”

Source: Xinhuanet