Gunmen have opened fire in Bamenda, in the northwestern African country of Cameroon, killing 10 people and injuring two others, Al Jazeera and others have reported.
According to local authorities and witnesses, 12 gunmen armed with automatic weapons opened fire on a busy street in Bamenda, which is home to restaurants and other businesses, at around 7:30 p.m. local time on June 16, before fleeing in two separate vehicles.
“The gunmen ordered people to get down on the ground, accusing them of ‘not supporting the separatists,'” one witness said, “and opened fire while some stayed down and others fled.”
Cameroonian police have blamed separatist rebels for the attack, which killed 10 people and injured two others, and are hunting them down.
The separatist rebels, however, deny responsibility, saying that “the assailants may have been disguised as separatist rebels.”
Cameroon recognizes French and English as official languages, but the country is divided between English-speaking residents, who make up just 20% of the population, and French-speaking residents, who are the majority.
According to the International Crisis Group ICG, 먹튀검증 a think tank specializing in conflicts, more than 6,000 people have been killed and 1 million displaced in fighting between the two sides since 2016.