YAOUNDE, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Thirty suspected armed separatist fighters were killed in Njikwa, a locality in the Northwest, one of the two strife-torn English-speaking regions of Cameroon, after government forces raided a base where the fighters have been camping, the Cameroon army said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Njikwa's terrorist base was destroyed early in the morning by the Paratroopers Commandos of the Airborne Battalion. More than 30 separatist terrorists were 'neutralized' and several weapons seized," the statement said. The Cameroon government regularly refers to the armed separatists as terrorists.
According to the army, two soldiers sustained minor injuries during the operation.
Photos posted on the Facebook page of the army showed about 25 artisanal hunting rifles and pistols the army claimed were seized from the separatist forces during the attack.
The war in the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest started last year after disgruntled Anglophones symbolically "declared independence" of the two regions.
English-speaking Cameroonians constitute approximately 20 percent of the Cameroon population that is predominantly Franchophone. For decades they have complained of what they believe is marginalization.
Clashes between the armed separatists and Cameroon security forces have claimed the lives of over 100 soldiers, according to the government. The number of the separatists and civilians killed in the conflict is still unknown although security sources say over 200 separatists have died.
