Gunmen suspected to be armed separatist fighters killed the mayor of the Belo council, his deputy and a senior education official in the Boyo Division of the restive North West region as Cameroon celebrated National Unity Day on Monday, May 20, officials confirmed.
Mayor Ngong Innocent Ankiambom, one of his deputies and the Inspector of Basic Education for Belo, Aghi Aaron Ngong, were shot dead while on their way to ceremonial ground in the municipality, North West regional Governor, Adolf Lele Lafrique told reporters in Bamenda, chief town of the region.
The officials had left the Belo council office and were heading to the municipal grandstand where the population gathered to take part in activities marking the 52nd National Day, local sources said.
Governor Lele Lafrique said a manhunt has been launched to apprehend and punish the authors of the criminal act in accordance with the laws of the republic, urging the population to collaborate with security services in tracing the killers.
“Despite that sad incident, the celebration [of the 52nd National Day] went on hitch free all over the North West region, including here in Bamenda,” Governor Lele Lafrique said.
Spate of killings
Separatist fighters pushing for breakaway Anglophone regions from majority French-speaking Cameroon and form an independent English-speaking country they want called Ambazonia, usually step up attacks during the National Day – the day Cameroon voted in a referendum to abolish the two-state federal system in favor of a unitary state.
This year, they imposed a three-day lockdown in the English speaking North West and South West regions, restricting movements of cars and people in the build-up to the event as part of measures to disrupt the celebrations.
However, none of the groups that are active in the North West region had claimed responsibility for the killings in Belo at the time of this report, but there had been a spate of attacks in the Anglophone regions in the lead-up to National Day.
On Friday May 10, suspected separatist fighters ambushed and killed a Gendarmerie Brigade Commander and four of his men in Eyomujock Subdivision in the Manyu Division of the South West region. Four days later, gunmen believed to be separatist fighters killed two soldiers and two civilians in an attack in Bambui, Tubah Subdivision in the North West region on Tuesday, May 14.
The two English speaking regions of the country have been plagued by prolonged violence since an industrial strike by lawyers and teachers morphed into an armed conflict following a crackdown on protesters in 2017. Those killed in the lead-up and on National Day add to at least 6,000 others who have died as a result of the bloody armed conflict since then.
