The Cameroonian presidency took offense Monday evening for "surprising words" from French head of state Emmanuel Macron, who promised on Saturday to put "pressure" on his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya.
Read also: Questions after a massacre in English-speaking Cameroon
"The Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon rejects (...) the surprising words of the President of the French Republic," wrote its secretary general, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, in a press release.
The Cameroonian president "is accountable for his action to the only sovereign Cameroonian people and not to a foreign leader, was he a friend", he assured, indicating that to accomplish his mission, the Cameroonian head of state "Does not need external pressure to do this".
"Intolerable violence"
Saturday, Mr. Macron had promised to a Cameroonian activist who had arrested him in Paris, on the sidelines of a visit to the Agricultural Show, to put "the maximum pressure" on Mr. Biya so that "violence ends in Cameroon who are intolerable ”.
On February 14, shortly before dawn, armed men - 40 to 50 all wearing army uniforms and some masked, according to testimony gathered by aid workers contacted by AFP - attacked the Ngarbuh neighborhood, in the village of Ntumbo, then shot and burned residents.
According to the UN, which has requested an independent and impartial investigation, 15 children, nine of whom are under the age of five, are among the 23 victims in the English-speaking part of the country.
The Cameroonian army which mentions "five victims" assured that the drama was the result of an "unfortunate accident", after the explosion of several fuel containers during exchanges of fire between security forces and secessionist rebels.
Since 2017, the conflict in the North-West and South-West regions populated mainly by the Cameroonian English-speaking minority has already left more than 3,000 dead and 700,000 displaced.
Both the Cameroonian army and the armed separatists have been accused by international human rights NGOs of abuses against civilians in these two regions.