One Cameroonian security member was killed on Wednesday in clashes with armed separatists in Nchoubou, a locality in the restive Anglophone region of Northwest, according to local authorities.

According to the Cameroonian army, the soldier of Cameroon’s elite force, Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), was killed in an ambush.

In the meantime, four separatists were killed, an army officer who asked not to be named said.

“Several secessionist terrorists escaped with wounds and the army succeeded to seize their weapons,” the officer added.

Separatists have intensified attacks in the two crisis-hit Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest for over a week now in a bid to impose a three-week lockdown to paralyze schools to reopen in the regions, according to security reports.

Government forces and armed separatists have been clashing in the two regions since 2017 after separatists declared “independence” of the Anglophone regions from the largely French-speaking Cameroon.

About 530,000 people have been displaced internally by the conflict, according to the United Nations.