Unidentified gunmen have carried out a deadly attack, resulting in the loss of nine lives, including that of a recently married couple in the city of Bamenda in Cameroon.

The victims, identified as Simplice Lontsi Tsomene, 37, and his wife Hélène Raisa Tanga, 25, were known as loving parents to three children and were also the proud owners of a phone shop.

Authorities are attributing the attack to separatist rebels, who struck at a busy junction. According to reports, the assailants arrived in two unmarked vehicles and immediately ordered people to lie down.

Eyewitnesses have come forward to reveal that the gunmen accused the victims of being “black legs,” insinuating that they were either colluding with the government or were not complying with the separatists’ directives.

Rebels who want to create a separate country called Ambazonia for Cameroon’s English-speaking regions have been locked in conflict with the government since 2017, and Bamenda is one of their hotspots.

A day before these latest shootings, troops attacked a residence in the same neighbourhood of Nacho, killing five young men.

The situation is rapidly deteriorating, with horrendous human rights abuses and atrocities being committed. Amnesty International recently published a report detailing alleged murders and rapes by both sides in the Anglophone armed conflict and urging the government to investigate.

Although no group has claimed responsibility for the killings, some separatist Ambazonia leaders in the diaspora have been urging their fighters to go after those they brand as “black legs”, without mercy.

Sources: BBC and Africa News