15 soldiers killed by separatists in Cameroon

SANAA, Sept. 21 (YPA) – Cameroon’s government said Monday that separatist rebels killed 15 soldiers and a number of civilians in 2 bomb attacks this month, marking a new phase in a nearly five-year conflict that has claimed more than 3,000 lives.

The rebels are seeking to form a breakaway state called Ambazonia in western Cameroon.

According to Reuters, they began fighting the military in 2017 after civilian protests calling for greater representation of the French-speaking country’s Anglophone minority were violently repressed.

What began with occasional raids by secessionists on police and army outposts has turned into a protracted fight that has sucked the life from large parts of the forested oil- and coffee-producing region.

The first of this month’s attacks occurred on Sept. 12 in Kumbo, a town in the Northwest region, when a military convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED).

E.M