Twenty students have been kidnapped by gunmen from a school in the restive English-speaking part of Cameroon.

The abduction in Kumba comes almost a fortnight after nearly 80 students were safely returned after being taken from a school in the neighbouring region.

Cameroon's North-West and South-West provinces have been hit by a separatist rebellion since last year.

Armed groups have called on local residents to boycott schools until a referendum on independence is held.

Protests against marginalisation by the country's French-speaking majority have been met with a crackdown.

Gunmen entered the Lords Bilingual School at 09:00 local time (08:00 GMT) and took 20 students and the principal, Kumba-based journalist Martin Cho says.

The private school is on the outskirts of Kumba, in the South-West region's Meme district, and is surrounded by rubber plantations, he says.

A separate source at the school confirmed the abduction to the BBC.

A spokesperson for Meme, Ebane Kome Slesor, has told journalists the security forces have opened an investigation in a bid to free the abductees.

In the incident earlier this month in the North-West regional capital Bamenda, the government had accused separatists of being behind that kidnapping. The Anglophone separatists denied they were involved. (BBC)