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Over 60 civilians abducted in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region

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BUEA, SOUTH WEST CAMEROON. MAY 16 2019: The view from the city of Buea looking East toward the coast and Francophone region on May 16, 2019 in Buea,Cameroon . Buea is one of the largest English speaking cities in Cameroon and located in the shadow of the vast Mount Cameroon. In 2017, separatists in Cameroon’s Anglophone territories declared an independent state of Ambazonia, an area formerly known as Southern Cameroons, and took up arms against the Cameroonian government. The violence has forced hundreds of thousands from their homes and, according to the UN, left more than a million people in need of humanitarian assistance. (Photo by Giles Clarke/UNOCHA via Getty Images)

A special investigative squad is on the case, according to the army that has blamed separatists for the kidnapping.

Local sources told Xinhua the civilians were drinking in a bar early Monday in Mmouck Leteh, a locality in Lebialem division of the region, when heavily armed men held them at gunpoint and took them away to an unknown destination.

Armed separatists are known to be operating in the locality that recently witnessed “fierce” clashes between separatist groups leading to the death of five fighters, according to security sources.

Separatists have not claimed responsibility for the abduction.

Fighting between government forces and armed separatist groups has been going on since 2017 after the separatists declared the independence of a nation called “Ambazonia” in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest.

According to the United Nations, more than 700,000 Cameroonians have been displaced internally and externally due to the fighting.

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