MADRID, 17 (EUROPA PRESS)
At least 15 members of Cameroon’s security forces were killed Thursday in an attack by suspected separatist militiamen in the Northwest Region, one of the two with an English-speaking majority in the African country, mired in conflict since 2017.
According to information gathered by the Cameroonian news agency CNA, the attack was carried out between the towns of Bamessing and Sabga, in the Ngoketundjia division, where the security forces were participating in an operation against the separatists.
The agents belong to the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), according to sources cited by the ActuCameroun news portal, who have indicated that several of them were dismembered after their death in the attack, in which an armored vehicle was also set on fire.
The Anglophone regions of Cameroon – Northwest and Southwest – have been rocked by conflict as a result of the repression of separatist movements following the self-proclamation of the independence of Ambazonia on October 1, 2017.
The previous year, this area – another part of the British colonies in Africa but which decided to join French Cameroon – was the scene of peaceful protests to demand greater autonomy or independence, arguing discrimination by the central authorities, also in language topics.
Since then, armed groups have proliferated and support for separatists, until then quite marginal, has grown. The government has responded with harsh repression, during which human rights organizations have accused the security forces of committing atrocities.