At least 26 villagers were killed in Saturday’s attack in the Akwaya district, where separatist rebellions in Cameroon’s southwestern region have fueled inter-ethnic clashes, local sources said on Monday.
Anglophone rebels began fighting the Cameroonian army in the southwestern and northwestern regions in 2017, after civil protests that demanded greater representation of the country’s English-speaking minority were violently suppressed.
Akwaya district paramedic Enow Daniel Kewong told Reuters that 26 bodies have been found so far and people are still missing after Saturday’s attack on the village of Ballin, near the Nigerian border.
He added that the Integrated Health Center of the village was set on fire.
According to district lawmaker Aka Martin Tyoga, he was told that 32 people, including six Nigerians, were buried in a mass grave.
Local military officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Two local sources said the attack was linked to a fierce land dispute between the Ugare ethnic group Ballin and Olitis in the nearby village of Mavass and was exacerbated when separatist fighters joined forces with Olitis.
A source said the attackers broke into a funeral home and opened fire indiscriminately.
According to civil society groups, this blurred line between different types of conflict has become increasingly common in English-speaking areas of Cameroon, where law and order have been drastically disrupted.
source: Noticias
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