Anglophone separatists kill five soldiers, four civilians in west Cameroon

Anglophone separatists killed five members of the security forces and four civilians at the weekend in attacks in western Cameroon, local authorities and state television said Sunday.

On Saturday, around 20 gunmen attacked a gendarmerie and a police station in Galim, in a predominantly French-speaking province, officials said.

Two women gendarmes were killed, two male police officers and four civilians, they added. 

On Sunday, in anglophone Northwest province, a homemade bomb injured at least seven people including a soldier who later died, state television said.

Two anglophone regions in the west of the West African country have been rocked by deadly violence as armed separatists campaign for independence from the rest of Cameroon, which is majority French-speaking.

Rights groups have accused both sides of atrocities in a two-year conflict that has left more than 3,000 dead, closed schools and clinics and forced 700,000 people to flee their homes.