Reports from Bamenyam, a small town in the arrondissement of Galim, Bamboutos department (West region), indicate that a market was attacked this morning by armed men. According to these sources, the attackers were separatist fighters from the neighboring crisis-stricken North-West region. Unofficial reports put the death toll at six, with four missing. Numerous injuries have also been reported.

The West region regularly suffers the consequences of the separatist conflict that struck the neighboring North-West and South-West regions since 2017. Attacks have been recorded several times in the Bamboutos region, not far from the section of national road N°5 that links Bafoussam, the major city in the West, to Bamenda, the capital of the North-West. These attacks have considerably slowed road repair work. Border villages are also frequently attacked.

This is the second mass killing attributed to separatists in less than a month. On November 6, armed men carried out a night raid on Egbekaw, in the Mamfe district of the South-West region. The attack left 25 people dead and many more wounded.

L.A.