At least six civilians were killed and eight injured when separatists in southwest Cameroon opened fire on a public bus on Tuesday.
A parliamentarian for Ekona’s constituency, Findi Stanley Mokondo, and the head of a regional hospital confirmed the attack but did not provide a death toll.
According to a transport syndicate official who did not wish to be named for security reasons said the bus, travelling from the economic capital Douala to the city of Kumba, came under fire near the town of Ekona.
Doctor Martin Mokaka, head of the main hospital in regional capital Buea, said six dead bodies and eight injured victims had been brought to the facility.
Anglophone insurgents fighting to carve out an independent state out of Cameroon’s English-speaking North West and South West regions have escalated attacks, killings and kidnappings this year.
Aa at the time of this report, neither the separatists, who refer to themselves as “Amba Boys”, nor the government were immediately available for comment.
Insurgents began fighting the Cameroonian military in 2017 after civilian protests calling for greater representation for the Francophone country’s English-speaking minority were violently repressed.
Separatists imposed a two-week lockdown in the North West and South West regions on Sept. 5, the day schools were scheduled to resume after the summer break.