One soldier killed in northwest Cameroon

By Peter Kum and Felix Tih

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AA) - A Cameroonian soldier was killed on Friday by suspected English-speaking activists in the country’s northwest, Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo told Anadolu Agency.

"Pvt. Yaya Emmanuel, a member of the 22nd motorized infantry battalion, was slaughtered this morning in his room in the Mamfe locality," Assomo said, blaming the death on English-speaking activists.

He is the fourth Cameroonian officer to be killed in the English-speaking region in less than a week, but the crimes have not been claimed by Anglophone activists.

English-speaking regions of Cameroon have lived for almost a year in a state of unrest, witnessing strikes and demonstrations denouncing discrimination against the Anglophone minority in favor of the Francophone majority.

Violence left dozens of protesters dead and over 100 injured last month after tens of thousands of people began a peaceful march to proclaim the independence of Western Cameroon, also known as Ambazonia, according to the International Crisis Group.

French Cameroon gained its independence from France in 1960. In 1961, a federal state was set up when British Cameroon broke away from Great Britain and joined French Cameroon. The federal state was later dissolved in favor of a unitary state in 1972.

Since then, English-speakers say they have been marginalized, forced to use French in public institutions and schools, and use the French-Cameroon legal system.