At least seven Cameroonian soldiers were injured Thursday afternoon after their armored car skidded and fell along the road in Kumba, a town in Southwest, one of the two war-torn English-speaking regions of Cameroon, according to local police.

“Some of them sustained life threatening injuries and others minor injuries. They have all been rushed to the hospital to receive medical attention,” police said.

The soldiers, all members of Cameroon elite force, Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), were on a mission to Mamfe, another town in the region where separatists are known to be operating when the accident happened.

Separatists claimed to have caused the accident with an improvised explosive, but the army denied, saying it was caused by “bad road”.

Armed separatists have been clashing with government forces in the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017 in a bid to create an independent nation they call “Ambazonia”.

Source: Xinhaunet