Gunmen shoot 2 gendarmes dead in Cameroon

A group of heavily armed Anglophone militants attacked a security checkpoint, killing two gendarmes in Cameroon's North West region, a local governor said on Wednesday.

Adolphe Lele Lafrique identified the two slain officers as Himma Rene and Sani David, and said the assailants had escaped.

Three gendarmes have been killed so far in less than 24 hours.

An officer was killed on Monday in clashes between English-speaking militants and police in Cameroon's North West Region town of Jakiri.

English-speaking regions of Cameroon have lived for almost a year in a state of unrest, witnessing strikes and demonstrations denouncing discrimination against the Anglophone minority in favor of the Francophone majority.

Violence left dozens of protesters dead and over 100 injured last month after tens of thousands of people began a peaceful march to proclaim the independence of Western Cameroon, also known as Ambazonia, according to the International Crisis Group.

French Cameroon gained its independence from France in 1960. In 1961, a federal state was set up when British Cameroon broke away from Great Britain and joined French Cameroon. The federal state was later dissolved in favor of a unitary state in 1972.

Since then, English-speakers say they have been marginalized, forced to use French in public institutions and schools, and use the French-Cameroon legal system.