At least seven armed separatists were killed in fresh clashes with French Cameroun government forces early Thursday in Cameroon’s locality of Esu located in troubled English-speaking region of Northwest, according to military sources.

“We know them well. There were 11 of them generally. We only handled those that were actively involved in the fighting and the others were released,” a military officer who asked not to be named observed.

Armed separatists seeking to secede from largely French-speaking Cameroon have been clashing with government forces in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017.

At least 430,000 people have been displaced internally by the conflict, according to the United Nations. The crisis also cost the lives of more than 300 soldiers, according to the Cameroon army. There are no official figures of the number of separatists killed.

Source: Xinhuanet with additional editing from Camcordnews