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This undated photo provided by Don Williams shows Charles Wesco and his wife Stephanie. Charles Wesco, an American missionary, died Tuesday, October 30, 2018, after being hit in the head by clashes between armed separatists and soldiers in northwestern Cameroon, said the director of the regional hospital. (Don Williams via AP) (Associated Press)
YAOUNDE, Cameroon – Cameroon's defense minister has urged all foreign nationals living in troubled areas of the country to be cautious after the death of an American missionary after being shot in the head during fighting between armed separatists and soldiers in the northwest.
"If you must be there, immediately inform the military so that we can ensure your security," said Joseph Beti Assomo on Wednesday, adding that the northwestern and southwestern regions of Cameroon, where the separatists were fighting for a state independent, were dangerous for foreigners.
Charles Trumann Wesco, a missionary from the US state of Indiana, was in the area with his wife Stephanie and eight children for almost two weeks before Tuesday's shooting.
Dave Halyman, assistant pastor of the Believers Baptist Church in Warsaw, Indiana, where Stephanie Wesco's father, Don Williams, is the senior pastor, said Williams had talked on the phone with his daughter after the shooting.
Halyman said that he and Williams were in a car driven by another missionary in Bamnui town, Bamenda suburb of Bamenda, where the family lives. He added that Charles Wesco was on the front and that two shots hit the windshield and hit him in the head. No one else was hurt, Halyman said.
The family had raised financial aid to work in Cameroon for two years and had visited the country two years ago during a study trip.
The US embassy has not responded to the shooting, but it has been warning US citizens for some time not to visit the troubled parts of the country.
Most foreign and local firms have left the regions of north and south-west Cameroon, where violence has intensified and hundreds of people have been killed in separatist-military fighting over the course of the conflict. Past year.
This is not the first time that a foreign national is killed in these areas.
A Ghanaian pastor was found dead shot and wounded in July near Buea, in southwestern Cameroon.
A Tunisian and his colleague were killed in an operation in March in the Manyu Division in southwestern Cameroon, which also released four other Tunisian engineers.
Armed road construction engineers were kidnapped in April by armed gangs in Mamfe, in the south-west of the country, for neglecting to stop building roads. The army organized an operation to release them, during which a Nigerian and a Gabonese died and three were saved.
In April, the authorities also announced the release of 18 people, including 12 European tourists, seized in their car by armed separatists in Manyu, in the south-west of the country, while they were visiting a local lake. .
Regional Governor Deben Tchoffo said armed groups had organized attacks to prevent the reopening of the University of Bamenda and that the army fought back on Tuesday. He said that Wesco could have been caught in the crossfire.
The army has killed at least four suspects and arrested many others, the army spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck told The Associated Press. He did not say whether the detainees were military or separatists.
The increase in violence began after the government crackdown on demonstrations by English-speaking teachers and lawyers protesting what they called their marginalization by Cameroon's French-speaking majority. The armed factions emerged after the government crackdown and resorted to violence to push for the creation of an independent state called "Ambazonia".
Demonstrations against the reelection of October 7, Biya, 85 years old, continue.
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Associated Press reporter Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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