People are deserting the English-speaking regions of Cameroon after hundreds of armed separatists and the military were involved in Tuesday’s bloody conflicts in five towns and villages leaving at least 15 people dead. Residents complain that the army was slow in responding to simultaneous attacks by the separatists.

Intensive shooting between an unknown number of armed separatists and at least 50 soldiers of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR, an elite corps of Cameroon’s military is going on at Mile 16, Bolifamba, a neighborhood in the southwestern town of Buea.

As the military shoots, some of the troops clear the wreckage of vehicles, abandoned containers, trees and heavy metals that the armed separatists are said to have used in blocking all entrances into the town before the military arrived. The military said the attackers also burned vehicles, houses and shops.

Some residents are rushing to various destinations, including the bush.

Businessman Peter Bongkiyung, 24, says he saw two corpses, including that of a soldier, and no longer feels safe in the town.

“I am still believing that, come whatever, I have to go,” he said.

Jenine Ita, a 47-year-old jurist working in the town, is also leaving with her three children and wounded husband. She says the armed men invaded Mile 16 as early as 5 a.m. Tuesday, blocking the road and setting some transport buses on fire. Ita said she was surprised that the military, stationed at various entrances to the town, came late.

“We cannot continue living in such an environment where you cannot trust your neighbor. Where are the armed men coming from? How do they get into town without the knowledge of the military?” she said.

Similar simultaneous attacks were reported in four other villages in the Northwest and Southwest regions including Bamenda. Mamfe and Wum.

Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of the Southwest region, said he is pleading with the separatists to drop their guns and stop the carnage. He said next month’s presidential election should offer an opportunity for them to democratically express their views should they be disgruntled with the government.

“The presidential election is a very important moment for all the countries in the world and the southwest should not miss to be fully involved in the presidential election on October 7. We should stop the killings, the kidnappings, the disturbances and all the nuisance that the present crisis has brought in our region,” he said.

The government has been assuring voters that they will be protected.

Unrest in Cameroon began in November 2016, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers demonstrated against the overbearing use of the French language. Separatists took over and started demanding the independence of the English-speaking from the French-speaking regions of the bilingual country.

Last Saturday, armed Anglophone separatists burned buses and blocked traffic into and out of the capital of the English-speaking Northwest region and said the action in Bamenda was to disrupt next month’s presidential election.

The United Nations reports that 300 people including 130 policemen and the military have been killed, hundreds of thousands have fled for their lives to the bushes and towns in the French-speaking regions. At least 20,000 crossed over to Nigeria.

Culled from the VOA

A gunman in the US state of California shot and killed six people, including himself and his wife, in a mass shooting that police say has become the “new normal” across the country.

The unidentified man went with his wife to a trucking company in Bakersfield, California, where he shot and killed a man and then turned his gun on his spouse, killing her, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood told a news conference on Wednesday.

He then chased another man from the trucking company before he shot and killed him in front of a nearby sports store.

The gunman then went to a home where he shot and killed a man and a woman, the sheriff said.

He killed himself shortly afterwards after being confronted by a sheriff’s deputy, Youngblood said.

“This is the new normal, if you look across this country,” Youngblood said, describing the incident as a mass shooting.

“Obviously, these are not random shootings,” he added. “Six people lost their lives in a very short period of time.”

Authorities were working to determine “why this started and why so many players were involved and the connection because obviously these are not random shootings,” Youngblood said.

The United States loses around 33,000 people to gun violence every year. Additionally, more than 100,000 people are shot each year in the country at a total cost of $45 billion, according to a study published in the journal Health Affairs.

Amnesty International said in a scathing report Wednesday that the gun violence situation in the United States has grown into a full blown “human rights crisis” amid inaction from the US government.

The report said “all aspects of American life have been compromised in some way by the unfettered access to guns, with no attempts at meaningful national regulation.”

“The US government is prioritizing gun ownership over basic human rights. While many solutions have been offered, there has been a stunning lack of political will to save lives,” said Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

“Our government has allowed gun violence to become a human rights crisis,” she said.

The issue of gun violence has become all the more polarizing under President Donald Trump, a Republican whose presidential campaign was funded partially by the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Trump has been reluctant to address the growing issue in his speeches and following several high-profile mass shootings in the country.

Source: Presstv