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At least three police officers, including a superintendent, were killed in clashes between English-speaking separatists and security forces in western Cameroon, local sources reported on Tuesday
. a campaign to obtain the independence of two English-speaking regions from the rest of the French-speaking country.
A local official in Buea, the southwestern region capital, said, "Two police were killed yesterday [Monday] on the south A policeman was also kidnapped" and we have no news from him, "said the source.
A hospital source went on to say that five police officers and one civilian died at the scene, and on Monday another civilian was wounded.
On Sunday, a police commissioner from Kumba, a town on Buea's main road towards Mamfe, was "killed in cold blood by gunmen suspected to be English-speaking separatists." said
"He was having a drink at home when they killed him," said the source The report was confirmed by a local resident
The separatists of the English-speaking regions of the southwest and northwestern want to free themselves from the rest of the country, after long protests c the negligence perceived by the French-speaking leaders of Cameroon
. In 2016, the authorities refused to make concessions.
After the symbolic declaration of separatist independence on October 1, the authorities responded with repression and violent acts and arson attacks against schools.
According to a government report released last month, separatists have killed 74 soldiers and seven policemen since the end of 2017, when more than 100 civilians have died "in the last 12 months".
160,000 people were internally displaced and 20,000 took refuge in neighboring Nigeria
Violence continued on Tuesday following President Paul. Biya 's announcement last Monday of a presidential election nationwide on October 7.
Biya, 85 years the oldest president of Africa, has not made known his intentions.
But the main opposition Social Democratic Party (SDF), traditionally badociated with the English-speaking regions, has nominated a candidate, Joshua Osih.
The presence of a large Anglophone minority in Cameroon dates from the colonial period.
The former German colony was divided between Great Britain and France after the First World War.
The French colony obtained its independence in 1960, becoming Cameroon. The following year, southern Cameroon, led by the British, was merged there, giving birth to the northwestern and southwestern regions
© Agence France-Presse
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