Five soldiers killed in separatist attack on army outpost in Cameroon

Soldiers patrol in Bafut, after the roof of a school's dormitory was set to fire overnight, on November 15, 2017, in the northwest English-speaking region of Cameroon. Authorities in Cameroon have imposed a night-time curfew on November 8, 2017 and ordered the closure of shops and public places in the main city in a region rocked by unrest among the country's anglophone minority. Four makeshift bombs exploded overnight on November 12, a week after four soldiers were killed in the two administrative areas where most of Cameroon's anglophone minority live. Their deaths have been blamed by the authorities on "terrorists" -- anglophones campaigning for the two English-speaking areas, the Northwest and Southwest Regions, to secede from Cameroon. / AFP PHOTO / - (Photo credit should read -/AFP via Getty Images)
Soldiers patrol in Bafut, in the northwest English-speaking region of Cameroon. (Photo credit -/AFP via Getty Images)

Five Cameroonian soldiers were killed by separatist fighters during an attack overnight into Tuesday in the country’s restive English-speaking region of Northwest, according to military sources.

The separatist fighters ambushed and attacked a military outpost in Lassin village of Noni subdivision of the region, two senior security officers who asked not to be named told Xinhua.

In a video released on social media, separatist fighters who called themselves “Marine Force of Ambaland” claimed responsibility for the attack and warned of “more attacks in future.”

Government forces have been clashing with separatist fighters since 2017 in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest where separatists seek to create a breakaway state they call “Ambazonia.”