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Cameroon Military Says It Has Freed 4, Including 2 Students

Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   YAOUNDÃ - Two students who were among four civilians freed from a
   suspected rebel hideout in Cameroon's English-speaking northwestern
   town of Bamenda say they were tortured for pursuing an education. The
   military said Friday four rebels were killed, four others arrested, and
   huge consignments of weapons seized from rebels fighting to create an
   English-speaking state in the French-speaking-majority Cameroon.

   Cameroon's military says a dozen troops Friday night attacked a
   separatist camp in Ntanka, an English-speaking village near the
   northwestern town of Bamenda. Saturday morning, the troops handed over
   four hostages they had freed to Brigadier Generals Valere Nka and
   Ekongwesse Divine Nnoko, military commanders fighting separatists in
   Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest region.

   Among the freed hostages was a 17-year-old student who identified
   herself only as Jane. She said she was abducted on her way to school in
   Bamenda, held in captivity and tortured for a week.

   "They [fighters] started asking us that are they [fighters] too big to
   go to school or why do we think we are going to school?" she said.
   "Those questions we could not answer. They were beating us using a
   cutlass. We were sleeping on the floor with no bed. Nothing. That is
   why we are dirty like this."

   Looking tired and hungry, Jane said she and three other hostages did
   not have enough food and water.

   The military said two students, a job seeker and a businessman were
   freed from the abandoned building that served as a separatist camp. One
   civilian was seriously wounded in crossfire between the troops and
   fighters. He was rushed to a hospital in Bamenda.

   No troops were killed or wounded. Four fighters were killed, four
   arrested and an unknown number, including women, fled to the nearby
   bush, the military said.

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