Cameroon risks full-blown insurgency as Anglophone separatists kill 4 security personnel

The Central African nation of Cameroon risks full-blown insurgency after no less than four security personnel were reportedly killed by separatists from the Anglophone region of the country in the last one week.

However, the number of victims declared dead by local authorities was contested by a spokesman for the separatists who said five security personnel had actually been killed.

According to Cameroon’s Communications Minister, Issa Tchiroma, the insurgents killed a soldier in Bamenda by slitting his throat. He also added that another female soldier guarding a bridge was killed by the separatists.

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“As I speak, four members of the Defence and Security Forces on duty have been killed, murdered by terrorists on behalf of the secessionist movement,” Tchiroma said.

Cameroon has been in turmoil following demonstrations a year ago by English-speakers in the western region bordering Nigeria against what they see as a marginalisation by the mostly French-speaking government of President Paul Biya.

Many have been driven into the arms of a once-fringe separatist movement ahead of presidential elections in 2018 after a government crackdown on the separatists killed dozens of people.

 

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