Southern Cameroons Crisis: Amba fighters kill soldier, police officer in Kengwo ⁰

Southern Cameroons Self Defense fighters killed three people, including a soldier and a police officer on Sunday in Kengwo a border locality in the West region.

Amba fighters attacked an army post in Kengwo, killing a soldier, a police officer and a motorcyclist, said the region’s governor, Augustine Awa Fonka.

The attackers seized weapons and suffered no losses, he added.

Kengwo is near the North West region, which with the neighbouring South West region has suffered a bloody conflict between Ambazonia Restoration Forces and the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military for five years.

English speakers make up a majority of the regions’ populations in predominantly French-speaking Cameroon, which President Paul Biya has ruled with an iron fist since 1982.

Anglophones feel marginalised and an independent state called “the Federal Republic of Ambazonia” was declared in 2017 by their leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe without achieving international recognition.

Biya, 89, has resisted calls for more autonomy in the regions and responded with a crackdown on the separatists.

The violence has claimed more than 6,000 lives and displaced around a million people, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

International monitors and the United Nations say both sides have committed abuses, including crimes against civilians.

In June, Ambazonia fighters killed five soldiers in an attack in western Cameroon.

By Rita Akana with files