Four prison officers were killed on Tuesday in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region of Northwest after their convoy was attacked by gunmen, local and security sources said.

Gunmen ambushed the convoy of the prison officers in Bui, a division of the region Tuesday afternoon and killed all of them.

“They were returning from installing a new prison superintendent in another village of the region. Theodore Kiga, who is the chief prison superintendent of the region, and three other prison officers were killed in the attack,” a senior army official who asked not to be named told Xinhua by phone.

It is unclear who organized the ambush, but separatist fighters are known to be operating in the locality, the source said.

The army was in pursuit of the gunmen who escaped to the bush after the attack, according to officials in the region.

Separatist fighters have been clashing with government forces in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017 in a bid to create an independent nation in the regions they called “Ambazonia.”

Source: Xinhuanet