The Cameroonian army claimed to have killed 5 separatists, including the head of the commando who had assassinated seven students in a school in the English-speaking southwest on October 24, 2020, according to a statement sent to AFP on Wednesday.
One of the separatists killed, "Above the law", is
"the leader of the barbarian horde"
responsible for the attack on a school in Kumba, wrote in a statement Colonel Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo, spokesman for the army.
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On October 24, a dozen armed men stormed onto a school complex in Kumba on their motorbikes and opened fire on students.
The army raid, carried out in the night from Sunday to Monday in Balangui, in the South-West, in the grip of an English-speaking separatist insurrection, aimed to
"put out of harm's way armed terrorists gathered to program attacks on the town of Kumba and its surroundings, ”
the statement said.
This raid ended in a
"violent clash"
in which 5 separatists were killed while others were injured.
Weapons and ammunition were also recovered, according to the statement.
Schools are regularly targeted, because English-speaking rebels assimilated to central power.
In November 2019, UNICEF reported 855,000 children out of school in English-speaking regions.
About 90% of public primary schools, or more than 4,100 schools and 77% of public secondary schools were then closed or not operational.
In the English-speaking regions of the North West and South West, armed groups and security forces dispatched by Yaoundé are waging a merciless war and the two camps are regularly accused of crimes committed against civilians by international NGOs and the 'UN.
The fighting in English-speaking Cameroon, but also the atrocities and killings of civilians by the two camps, according to many NGOs, have left more than 3,000 dead and forced more than 700,000 people to flee their homes since 2017.