Secessionists in the English-speaking South-West region of Cameroon murdered a local mayor in an ambush in which two soldiers were also left injured, the region’s governor said Monday.
Mayor of Mamfe, Ashu Priestley Ojong, was killed by “terrorist secessionists” on Sunday morning, Bernard Okalia Bilai announced in a statement.
The mayor’s convoy was attacked by unidentified people as they were travelling from Mamfe to the nearby village of Eshobi, said the state broadcaster CRTV .
They went there after receiving substantial intel that some rebels would be laying down their weapons, read the report .
Late Ojong was elected in February at the legislative and municipal polls that the secessionist rebels had rooted against to have them boycotted.
According to media reports, English-speaking secessionists in both the North-West and South-West regions of the central African country have been in a tussle to take power forcefully from the government since early 2017.
Rights groups and activists have accused both sides of commuting crimes and atrocities in the ongoing conflict, which has left not less than 3,000 people dead, shutdown of schools and clinics and forced at least 700,000 people to be Internally Displaced (IDPs).
Cameroon has faced a lot of criticism from international communities as it has been ruled with an iron fist for decades by ageing President, Paul Biya, whom rights groups accuse of stifling democracy and economic progress
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