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Separatists Target Cameroon's Defense Minister, Defense Chief

by Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   YAOUNDE --

   Armed separatists fighting for creation of an English-speaking state in
   Cameroon opened fire on the country's defense minister and defense
   chief Friday. Neither official was hurt but at least 10 people were
   killed in the attack in the English-speaking southwest region, where
   the minister was visiting to encourage his troops fighting the
   separatists.

   Military spokesperson Colonel Didier Badjeck says more than 100 armed
   separatists mounted several road blocks on the route linking the south
   western regional town of Kumba and the locality of Mbonge to stop
   Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo, who was leading a high profile
   military delegation dispatched by President Paul Biya to encourage the
   country's soldiers fighting armed separatists.

   Badjeck says as they removed the road blocks, armed separatists who
   were hiding in nearby bushes started shooting and the military fired
   back killing at least 10 of the attackers.

   He says the terrorists who were heavily armed with war weapons, locally
   made guns, cutlasses and poisoned spears started shooting ceaselessly
   towards the military convoy and the minister's car for about 30
   minutes. He says the military fired back and hundreds of the attackers
   escaped to the bushes where they are still being hunted by the
   military.

   Several members of the minister's delegation were wounded. Hundreds of
   villagers and travellers along the road fled to the bushes.

   Beti Assomo ordered the military to make sure all of the attackers are
   either arrested or neutralized. He also congratulated the military for
   what he called successes in the fight against armed separatists since
   President Biya declared war against them in November 2017, describing
   the separatists as terrorists.

   He says he found a very determined military, ready to fight until peace
   returns in the English speaking north west and south west regions.

   The armed separatists used social media to warn Cameroon's defense
   minister against visiting any part of the English speaking northwest or
   southwest regions, which they claim as the new state of Ambazonia.

   Tensions in Cameroon began in November 2016, when English-speaking
   teachers and lawyers in the northwest and southwest regions protested,
   seeking reforms and greater autonomy and expressing frustration with
   the dominance of the French language and the marginalization of
   Cameroon's Anglophone population.

   The crisis intensified when Ayuk Tabe, the self-declared president of
   the English speaking Republic of Ambazonia, was arrested alongside 48
   others in Nigeria and extradited to Cameroon.

   More than 160,000 people have been internally displaced and tens of
   thousands have fled to neighboring Nigeria, according to the United
   Nations. The government of Cameroon says more than 200 government
   troops and civilians have been killed.

   International NGO and rights groups have decried the harsh government
   crackdown and indiscriminate arrests of suspects.