Cameroon forces retreat after attacks by separatists
From BBC World Service
The Cameroonian military has 26.4.2018 suffered tactical defeat and been forced to withdraw from the north-western town of Belo.
This was after it was attacked by anglophone separatists fighting for an independent republic of Ambazonia.
The move followed weeks of military raids in English-speaking parts of Cameroon by Francophone dominant government forces.
Many houses were burned and people arrested.
This week, fighters – believed to be separatists – killed the headmaster and teacher of a school and cut off a student’s hand.
A BBC correspondent in Cameroon says the school was attacked because it failed to heed the separatists’ call to shut down in protest against marginalisation by the francophone majority.
Cameroon, home to more than 200 different linguistic groups, is known as “Africa in miniature” due to its diversity.
The Central African country has one of the highest literacy rates on the continent.
Its progress, however, is hampered by persistent problems with corruption.
Created in 1961 by the unification of two former colonies, one British and one French, the modern state of Cameroon has also struggled to find peace and unity.
Internally, there have been cries of marginalisation against the two mainly English-speaking southern provinces by the francophone majority.
In the 1990s, a movement for independence of Anglophone Cameroon, the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) was banned by decades old regime of Paul Biya.
The northernmost Islam dominated part of the country is also embroiled in the regional Islamist insurgency of Boko Haram.
