Leader of Cameroon’s separatist movement arrested in Nigeria
Julius Ayuk Tabe, the Nigeria-based chairman of the Governing Council of Ambazonia separatist movement, was taken into custody with six others at a hotel in Abuja on Friday, said an official in the West African country and a member of the separatist group in Cameroon.
Agency reports say that the rebels were arrested by security agencies of Nigeria. The unrest in Cameroon began in November, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, frustrated with having to work in French, took to the streets calling for reforms and greater autonomy, French is the official language for most of Cameroon, but English is spoken in two regions that border Nigeria.
The rebels were arrested at Nera Hotel in Abuja on Friday while they were in a meeting; the meeting started at around 5pm, before the gunmen came into the hotel and abducted all of them including the President
The meeting was scheduled to discuss the Southern Cameroons Refugee crisis in Nigeria and to galvanize relief support for housing, medical and feeding in anticipation of the approaching rainy season.
The group said it had contacted the Nigerian government over the issue and it was currently being probed.
