Cameroon government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary has said that the army killed about 30 separatists in fighting early on Tuesday morning near the north-western town of Ndu and freed 16 hostages held by the rebels.
The separatist rebels have been attacking each other based on the language spoken by either side with the major rift between Anglophones and Francophones. The clashes were further by the recent elections won by president Paul Biya. The majority of Cameroon’s 22 million plus people are French-speaking, while about a fifth is English-speaking. The anglophone minority has long complained about marginalization which led to protests by teachers and lawyers over a period of time.
The conflict between Anglophone separatists who want to create an independent state called Ambazonia and government forces has killed hundreds since last year and emerged as Biya’s greatest security problem in nearly four decades in power.
