BAMENDA, Cameroon - All 78 children and a driver kidnapped in southwest Cameroon were released on Wednesday, but a principal and one teacher are still being held by the armed men that took them, a priest conducting negotiations said.

"Praise God seventy eight 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, two days after they were taken into the bush by armed men.

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

Reuters