Separatists in an English-speaking part of Cameroon have kidnapped a former top judge, a source said Monday, marking a fresh escalation in the troubled region.

Martin Mbeng had retired last year as vice president of the court of appeal in the Southwest Region, which with the neighbouring Northwest Region is in the grip of violent unrest.

“Mbeng is in the hands of the supporters of secession,” lawyer Agbor Nkongho, a friend of the judge and head of a campaign group called the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, told AFP.