YAOUNDE (Reuters) – Five Cameroon military police were killed in an attack on Tuesday night in the western region of Cameroon, bordering a province where separatists are fighting for a breakaway state, the regional governor said on Wednesday.
The attack took place in Njitapon in the district of Kouoptamo, in the West French-speaking region bordering the two Anglophone regions where rebels have been fighting against the French-speaking majority state since 2017.
The governor of the West region, Augustine Fonka Awa, confirmed the attack without giving further details.
While violence is common in the two Anglophone regions, the separatists rarely wage attacks beyond them.
The conflict stems from perceived marginalisation of Cameroon’s Anglophone community by the French-speaking majority.
The fighting has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced nearly a million, with atrocities committed by both sides.
(Reporting by Amindeh Blaise Atabong; Additional reporting by Bate Felix; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Edmund Blair)
