At least three soldiers were killed and one seriously injured as armed Ambazonia Restoration Forces ambushed the French Cameroun armed forces on a patrol on Wednesday in Widikum, a locality in Southern Cameroons, Yaoundé said on Thursday.

The Southern Cameroons Self Defense forces claimed 10 soldiers were killed in the ambush, but Cameroon army sources said the information is false, adding that two separatists were “neutralized and several others escaped with injuries” when the army hit back.

Since 2017, Cameroon has been facing a separatist armed conflict in its two Anglophone regions that has displaced over 530,000 people internally and caused hundreds of deaths, according to the United Nations.

By Rita Akana with files from Xinhuanet