Seven persons were killed in an ambush with an improvised explosive device (IED) in Cameroon’s restive southwest on Wednesday, including a top government official and a mayor.
The Mayor is the first government official to be killed in the violence, which has claimed over 3,000 lives and forced nearly one million people to flee their homes.
The Governor of the South West Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, said the Ekondo Titi Sub-prefect was on a tour of his jurisdiction when his convoy hit an IED and was ambushed by separatist gunmen.
“It was a terrorist attack. It was an ambush,” Bilai told journalists, adding that the situation was under control.
Insurgents are attempting to construct a breakaway state named Ambazonia in one of two English-speaking districts in the Central African nation.
After civilian rallies calling for better representation for the country’s English-speaking population were ruthlessly suppressed, they began attacking the military in 2017.
Recall, on February 25, News Central reported that Cameroonian separatists abducted ten teachers at a school for disabled in Northwest, Yaounde.