Gunmen kill at least 20 in pre-dawn attack in Cameroon
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00:00 At least 20 people, including women and children, were killed by unidentified gunmen near Mamfe
00:05 in southwest Cameroon.
00:07 While no group has claimed responsibility yet, the government blamed separatists for
00:12 the attack.
00:13 Mamfe is located in one of Cameroon's Anglophone regions, which have been the scene of deadly
00:17 fighting between separatists and government forces for the past seven years.
00:22 Indira Ayyuk sent us this report from Yaoundé.
00:26 Calm is still to return to Ekbekor, a neighborhood in Mamfe in the English-speaking southwest
00:31 region of Cameroon.
00:32 Almost 24 hours after at least 24 people were brutally assassinated by unidentified gunmen,
00:40 most of the victims were already asleep, according to government sources.
00:43 Those of them who tried to attack the burning or flee from the burning of their homes were
00:48 simply shot and killed by the attackers.
00:51 The reasons for the attack are not known.
00:52 However, it is suspected that most of the victims collaborated with government officers,
00:58 giving them information about some separatist fighters.
01:02 Meantime, gendarmerie officers as well as the army transported dead bodies to a local
01:08 morgue.
01:09 Survivors were receiving medical attention at a local health center, as the town of Mamfe
01:13 has no hospital since the regional hospital there was touched last year.
01:18 Since the start of the Anglophone crisis in 2016, Mamfe has come under the attack of the
01:24 military as well as separatist fighters several times.