2 Killed in Cameroon’s Restive Anglophone Region

By Xinhua 

September 28, 2023

Reinnier Kaze, AFP | This photo taken on June 16, 2017 shows the city of Bamenda, the Anglophone capital of northwest Cameroon.

Gunmen killed a Catholic priest and a teacher on Tuesday in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region of Southwest, according to local and security sources.

The priest and five teachers were shot by gunmen suspected to be separatist fighters in the Kembong village of the region, said a traditional leader in the region.

“When they were shot, they did not die on the spot. They were taken to a hospital where the priest and one teacher died of bullet wounds Tuesday evening,” the leader, who declined to be named, told Xinhua by telephone.

“The other four teachers are still battling for their lives in the hospital,” he added.

It was not immediately clear why the gunmen targeted them, but local sources said they were enforcing a school-lockdown order in the area which was defied by the teachers and priest.

Tuesday’s killing came barely 24 hours after separatist fighters abducted 10 community executives in the same village for allegedly advocating for school resumption.

Since 2017, separatist fighters have been trying to disrupt schools in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest, where they want to create an independent nation.