Police Officer Killed, Teachers Kidnapped in Cameroon Attack

A police officer has been killed, and five teachers kidnapped after armed men attacked a teacher training centre in Cameroon, local authorities said on Wednesday.

According to reports from AFP, the attack occurred on Tuesday morning at a teacher training centre in Wum, about 80 kilometres north of Bamenda, the regional capital.

Northwest Governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique said in a statement that the armed men had infiltrated the facility before taking the teachers away.

A police officer at the scene attempted to intervene and stop the attackers but was shot dead, according to the governor.

Lafrique said the attackers fled with the five teachers to an unknown location, while security forces were searching for those responsible.

“The armed individuals unleashed a hail of bullets on him, killing him instantly, and took five teachers with them to an unknown location,” the governor said, adding that security forces are hunting the attackers.

The incident is the latest violence to hit Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, where a conflict between government forces and separatist groups has persisted for nearly a decade.

The crisis followed a government crackdown in late 2016 on protests by teachers and lawyers in the anglophone regions. The demonstrators had opposed what they described as growing control by French-speaking authorities over the education and legal systems.

Following the crackdown, a conflict broke out in 2017 between separatists and the government in Yaounde. Civilians fell victim to extortion, kidnappings for ransom and violence.

The United Nations (UN) estimates that at least 6,000 people have been killed since 2016.

More than 330,000 people were internally displaced in Cameroon in 2025, while over 100,000 others fled across the border into neighbouring Nigeria.