Yaoundé – Four members of Cameroon’s prisons department, including a regional manager, were killed in an ambush by armed men in a troubled anglophone region, a senior official told AFP on Wednesday.
Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions are populated mainly by anglophones, some of whom feel ostracised by the country’s French-speaking majority.
Since 2017, separatists seeking self-rule have clashed with the security forces a conflict that has claimed more than 6 000 lives and displaced around a million people, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).
ALSO READ | HRW asks Cameroon to protect prisoners from cholera
“An ambush by separatists on Tuesday claimed the lives of the regional representative of the prison administration of the Northwest Region and three of his colleagues on the road between Nkambe and Kumbo,” regional prefect Gilbert Menyong on Sunday told AFP by phone.
On March 2, seven people, including a local official and a mayor, were killed by gunmen on a road in the Southwest Region.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) announced on April 5 it was suspending humanitarian work in the Southwest Region after four local employees had been accused of “complicity” with rebels.
The armed groups are accused by the authorities of kidnapping, murdering or mutilating civilians whom they accuse of “collaborating” with the state.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Picture: Twitter / @hrw
Source: AFP
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
