Renewed clashes between Cameroon’s army and separatist rebels have left at least 10 people dead, the deadliest since President Paul Biya won a seventh term earlier this week.
The conflict in Cameroon has lasted more than a year now, as Anglophone separatists aim to secede from the rest of the country.
The conflict has killed hundreds and displaces tens of thousands since last year, and is regarded as Biya’s biggest security concern in his near-four decades in power.
Threats by the separatist rebels disrupted voting in the country’s two Anglophone regions during the October 7 election, keeping turnout to 5 percent in the Northwest and 16 percent in the Southwest.
Reuters news agency reports a government spokesman to say the army killed about 30 separatists in fighting early on Tuesday near the northwest town of Ndu and freed 16 hostages that were held by the rebels. He also said one government soldier was killed in the fighting.
The agency also reports a rebel spokesman to deny the government toll, saying the number of rebels killed was seven, and that three government soldiers had been killed.
Cameroon’s linguistic divide harks back to the end of World War One, when the League of Nations divided the former German colony of Kamerun between the allied French and British victors.
Separatist militia launched an insurrection last year against the predominantly Francophone central government after authorities violently repressed peaceful protests against perceived marginalisation of English speakers.
