The highest Catholic prelate in Cameroon, Cardinal Christian Tumi, and the Fon of Nso have been kidnapped by Cameroon Anglophone separatist fighters, HumAngle has learnt.
Tumi who is a native of Nso, was in the delegation accompanying the Fon of Nso, Shelm Mbinglo, back to his fondom after months on self-imposed exile, when they were stopped at a roadblock mounted by separatist fighters in Bamunka, in the restive Northwest region of Cameroon.
Tumi and Mbinglo were removed from the entourage and taken to an unknown destination where they remain at the time of filing this report.
Sources in the village of Bamunka told HumAngle by phone that the group that set up the roadblock was led by one General Shao Mao, a former pastor.
The Fon of Nso, who is one of the most revered traditional rulers in the Northwest Region, had left his fondom and taken refuge in the sultanate of Foumban, (which ancestry has blood links to the Nso fondom), after having been kidnapped twice before by the separatist fighters. One of his sons had earlier been abducted and killed.
Tumi is one of the Cameroon Anglophone moral authorities who has been speaking up for dialogue and for peace to return to the beleaguered Anglophone regions of the Northwest and Southwest.
He is the convenor of the All-Anglophone peace conference which has been in gestation for over a year now but is yet to hold because the Cameroonian authorities have been dragging their feet in authorising the holding of the parley.
It would appear the Anglophone separatists fault Tumi for always preaching in favour of the unity of Cameroon, which is against their independence aspiration.
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