The Cameroonian minister is ambushed in a troubled region, "dead attackers"

YAOUNDE: A convoy carrying Cameroonian Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo was ambushed in the English-speaking region of the country, leaving several dead attackers, national radio reported on Friday. The reporter said the convoy was ambushed shortly after.
President Paul Biya, 85, who ordered a crackdown in the troubled region Journalist Gregoire Djarmaila, who writes for the state-run Cameroon Tribune newspaper and was injured by shards of glbad, said that The attack had occurred while Beti Assomo was heading for a military position. seven kilometers (about four miles) from the city of Kumba.
The convoy consisted of approximately 30 vehicles, including an armored vehicle carrying the Minister, and if He encountered a roadblock midway up the road, and our vehicles were riddled with fire from abandoned houses. because of the war, "said Djarmaila
. fire, allowing the convoy to reach the military post.
"But as soon as we left the station we were attacked again, this time they seemed more numerous and determined … (they fired) on all the vehicles of the convoy."
Djarmaila said that "our good luck was that they were using homemade shotguns" rather than military weapons.

The ambush occurred at the heart of an armed campaign aimed at securing the independence of the northwestern and southwestern regions, a predominantly English-speaking region of the State of West Africa Francophone.
Years of resentment of the discrimination perceived by the French-speaking majority fueled demands for a return to the country's federal structure in 2016.
Biya adopted a hard line excluding any concessions [19459004TheEnglish-speakingactivistsmadeasymbolicdeclarationofindependenceonOctober1st
They named Buea, the main town of the Southwest region near Kumba, as the capital of their so-called state, Ambazonia.
Government repression followed, plunging the two regions into almost daily acts of violence and reprisals that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and forced tens of thousands of people out of their homes.

A non-governmental organization, the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, reported that 20 civilians had been killed by the Cameroonian army in two regions of the English-speaking North-West region. Where is.
Fifteen civilians including a teacher and seven family members and three children were killed Thursday in Batibo, said the group in a statement posted on social networks.
On Wednesday in Bambili, five students were taken out of bed during the night and killed.
Cameroonian authorities were not available to comment on the allegations
The violence coincided with bloody cross-border incursions into northern Cameroon by Nigerian jihadists from Boko Haram.
The two crises cast a shadow over the presidential election scheduled for October 7 – a fact that Biya, who has been head of state for 35 years, seemed to recognize in his announcement on Twitter .
"I will be your candidate In the next presidential election, he added that he was" aware of the challenges we face together for an even more united, stable and prosperous Cameroon. "
L & # The main opposition, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), has already nominated its candidate, Joshua Osih.
Among the other declared candidates are Akere Muna, lawyer and former vice-president of Transparency International, and Maurice Kamto, chief of the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC)
The presence of a large Anglophone minority in Cameroon dates back to the colonial period.
The former German colony was divided between Great Britain and France. France after the First World War
The French colony gained independence in 1960, becoming Cameroon, and the following year, the British-led Southern Cameroons merged into it, giving birth to x Northwestern and Southwestern regions.
According to a government report last month, English-speaking separatists have killed 74 soldiers and seven policemen since the end of 2017. 100 civilians have died "in the last 12 months".
The balance sheet has risen sharply since then. Since the beginning of this week, at least three police officers, including a superintendent, have been killed and fighting broke out for several hours in Buea.
The UN says 160,000 people were displaced and 20,000 sought refuge in neighboring Nigeria