The whereabouts of a former appeal court judge in Cameroon remain unknown, a day after he was kidnapped by separatist fighters in the South West region of the English-speaking part of the country on Monday. Martin Mbeng’s kidmap marks fresh escalation of the crisis in the troubled region. He had retired last year as vice president of the court of appeal in the Southwest Region, which with the neighboring Northwest Region, is in the grip of violent unrest. Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions are home to most of the country’s Anglophones – a minority of about 20% in the predominantly French-speaking country of 23.4 million. Thousands of French speaking Cameroonians have been massacred by Boko Haram in the country’s far north and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 10, 2018 20:45 UTC