A video of a man whipping a group of students at a school in Cameroon has sparked outrage online.
The video, which now has more than 148,000 views on Twitter, shows a man in a white coat using a white rope hitting the students who are lying on their stomachs in school uniforms.
There are at least 30 students, including girls, in the video.
The incident took place on Tuesday at a private school in the capital, Yaoundé. One of the school’s officials told the BBC that the students were being punished for being late.
The minister for secondary education, Nalova Lyonga, was due to visit the school on Wednesday following the incident, the owner of the school told the BBC.
Many people on social media have condemned the whipping.
“We really need to stop school violence. It is abuse,” one Twitter use said.
“That’s why Africa has so many dictators. We are afraid to question authority, even when that authority is wrong,” another said.
However, some have said that they have no problem with it, including this tweeter: “We were whipped like this, it made us disciplined, orderly, focused, practical, pragmatic and more organised.”
The use of corporal punishment is prohibited in schools in Cameroon, but the practice continues.
Earlier this month, a teacher was suspended for causing a pupil to rupture his spleen after beating him at a technical high school in the south of the country.
The secondary education minister then announced a national conference on violence in schools that is scheduled for 20 to 23 December in Yaoundé.
