Separatists in the English-speaking southwest region in Cameroon killed a mayor and wounded several of his security officers in an ambush attack in Mamfe. The mayor, Ashu Priestley Ojong was killed after the secessionist attacked his convoy as he traveled within the region.
According to preliminary intelligence, the attack was orchestrated after the separatists got word that some of the rebels were planning to lay down their arms. Ojong is one of the first senior elected officials to be killed in the conflict between Cameroon’s army and English-speaking militias.
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 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 some time.
The conflict between Anglophone separatists who want to create an independent state called Ambazonia and government forces have killed hundreds since the crisis’ genesis and emerged as Biya’s greatest security problem in nearly four decades in power.
