7 soldiers killed by separatists in northwest Cameroon: Governor

By Aurore Bonny

DOUALA, Cameroon (AA) - Seven soldiers were killed and several others wounded in a series of attacks launched by separatists in northwest Cameroon, an official said Monday.

"Terrorist separatists simultaneously attacked three military posts in the Northwest region. These include the towns of Nkambe, Noni and Ndu," Adolphe Lele Lafrique, the governor of the region, told reporters.

He said the figures for the dead and wounded are provisional.

The attacks, which took place between Sunday night and early Monday, are the latest killings of military personnel in the English-speaking region, which has been in the grip of a separatist crisis since 2016.

The bilingual country in Central Africa has a population of more than 21 million, with a 20% English-speaking minority, which claims to be marginalized. Anglophone people are divided between those who want federalism and those who want secession as a form of independence.

The unresolved crisis has turned into a theater of criminality where government forces deployed in the Northwest and Southwest regions, the two English-speaking areas, are engaged in fighting against armed separatists.

There have been a number of consistent reports of thousands of deaths as well as several hundred thousand externally displaced persons and over 700,000 internally displaced persons.

Crimes against humanity such as killings, rapes and abductions have also been documented by human rights organizations.

"The violence committed by both the security forces and armed separatists in the Northwest and Southwest regions has caused a major humanitarian crisis in Cameroon," said Human Rights Watch.