YAOUNDE, May 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 19 plantation workers have been kidnapped in Cameroon's restive Anglophone region of Southwest, according to security and local sources.
Workers of state-run plantations, Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) in Idenau locality of the region were asleep on Tuesday when gunmen raided the area and abducted 19 people including women, a government official who asked not to be named told Xinhua.
Ernestine Maloke, whose elder sister was abducted, said the gunmen have made no demand for ransom and the whereabouts of the hostages remain unknown.
"They arrived at the camp and surrendered everyone and took them away without telling us anything. We are pleading that they release our relatives unharmed," she told Xinhua by phone.
The army said a search and rescue mission was in progress in the locality where separatist fighters who want to create an independent nation in the country's two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest are known to operate.
The fighters who want to paralyze the government's plantations and cut off its revenue have carried out numerous attacks on the company and its workers since 2018, according to security reports. ■
