Yaounde, Oct. 3, (Xinhua/GNA) – Three armed separatists and a soldier were killed on Friday as separatists in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions attempted to celebrate “independence” day.
Local and security sources told Xinhua that clashes in the Wanti village of Northwest, one of the two Anglophone regions caused the death of a soldier and two armed separatists.
The army said a separatist fighter, considered to be the “right hand man” of “Field Marshal No Pity”, a notorious separatist fighter who has killed several members of the government forces, was also killed early Friday in Bamenda, chief town of the region.
Business activities in the two Anglophone regions have come to a standstill following an order from separatist leaders and government officials who earlier banned public gatherings.
On Oct. 1, 1961, Francophone and Anglophone Cameroon officially reunited to form one country, after Anglophone Cameroonians voted to join Francophone Cameroon in a plebiscite that was organized by the United Nations on Feb. 11, 1961.
However, separatists now want the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest to secede from French-majority Cameroon to form a new nation called Ambazonia, complaining that they have been marginalized since unification.
Armed separatists have been clashing with government forces since 2017 in a bid to achieve the “independence”.
GNA