Yaounde – A churchgoer has been shot dead and a pastor injured during a religious service in an anglophone region of Cameroon, church and local authorities said on Monday.
In the shooting, which occurred on Sunday in Bali in the northwest of the country, “shots were fired” during the service, the local Presbyterian church said on its website.
One person was killed and “the pastor suffered an injury to the arm”, it said, without providing any details about the perpetrators.
But a local official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that “it seems that the armed separatist group that is active in Bali is behind the attack”.
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The shots were aimed at nearby soldiers, the official said.
The group had laid a makeshift explosive device on the road, but the soldiers managed to avoid it and so the attackers “opened fire”.
Members of the anglophone minority in Cameroon’s westernmost provinces have long complained of being marginalised by the French-speaking majority and 88-year-old President Paul Biya, in power for 38 years.
Their demonstrations devolved into a bloody conflict, and rebels have extended attacks against police and soldiers to civilians.
More than 3 500 people have been killed and over 700 000 have fled their homes to escape the conflict that erupted in 2017.
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Source: AFP
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