Ambazonia Restoration Forces killed at least 15 Cameroon government army soldiers after they ambushed their convoy in the North West region, the army confirmed on Friday.

Earlier reports from sources said nine soldiers were killed in the attack but an official security report from the army in the region stated that the death toll was 15.

According to the army, Amba fighters ambushed and attacked the convoy that was transporting members of Cameroon elite force, Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), on Thursday in Bamessing, a locality in the region.

The armoured cars transporting the soldiers were shattered with explosive devices.

Early on Friday, Marines of Bambalang, a Southern Cameroons group in the region claimed responsibility for the ambush and shared gruesome images of the attack on social media.

The attack was the deadliest attack in the region since July last year, according to security reports.

Violence erupted in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest in 2017 after the leader of the Ambazonian nation President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe declared “independence” of the two regions.

Source: Xinhuanet with additional editing