As we have previously reported, Cardinal Christian Tumi was abducted with twelve other people on the 5th of November, in Northwest Cameroon. The cardinal was released on the 6th of November, so he spent a night in captivity.

On the 7th of November, a video appeared on the internet, that shows the ninety-year-old cardinal, being interrogated by his abductor.

In the video, one of Tumi’s captors confronts the cardinal about his calls for fighters in Cameroon to lay down their arms and then instructs him to share the separatists’ message with the public. To this, the cardinal responds:

“I will preach what is the truth with pastoral conviction and biblical conviction. (…) Nobody has the right to tell me to preach the contrary because I was called by God,” Cardinal Tumi says.

At another point in the video, the cardinal tells his captors: “When I speak, I speak like a pastor and that I can never stop doing. If I stop doing that, then I will not be faithful to God, the Almighty.”

While kidnapped, one of the separatists instructed Tumi in the video to tell the public and the government of Cameroon that “we will never lay down our arms until we are free because we are fighting for our rights.”

The cardinal responded: “I am a Cameroonian citizen like you. I am not part of the government. I am totally independent … I am not the mouthpiece of the government and am not employed by the government.”

“If you have done wrong, I will tell you that you have done wrong; if the government has done wrong, I will say that they have done wrong.”

You can watch the video here.