Armed separatists release all 78 children kidnapped in Cameroon

All 78 children and a driver kidnapped in west Cameroon have been released but a principal and one teacher are still being held by the armed men that took them, a priest conducting negotiations say.

The group was abducted in Bamenda, a commercial hub of Cameroon's restive English-speaking region, on Monday.

"Praise God 78 children and the driver have been released. The principal and one teacher are still with the kidnappers. Let us keep praying," Samuel Fonki, a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, said.

He had earlier put the number of children taken at 79 but later said one of their numbers was, in fact, a teacher, who remained with the kidnappers.

Fonki and the Cameroonian military have accused Anglophone separatists of carrying out the kidnappings, but a separatist spokesman denied involvement.

There have been a spate of kidnappings in the Anglophone regions at other schools but this week's incident involved the largest number abducted in a single incident,

English-speakers in Cameroon has long complained that they face discrimination from Cameroon's Francophone majority.

They say that they are excluded from top civil service jobs and that government documents are often only published in French, even though English is also an official language.

According to the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, the students were abandoned in one of its buildings in the town of Bafut, about 24km (15 miles) from Bamenda.

In an inauguration speech following last month's election to extend his 36-year rule, President Paul Biya told the separatists to lay down their arms or face the full force of the law, offering no concessions to them.

Anglophone secessionists have imposed curfews and closed schools as part of their protest against Biya's French-speaking government and its perceived marginalization of the English-speaking minority, although they had never kidnapped children before.