At least two people were killed and 11 others injured in a grenade attack by gunmen targeting a bar in Bamenda, a town in one of Cameroon’s troubled anglophone regions.
According to AFP, police disclosed in a statement release on Tuesday.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The bar owner was reportedly violating a prohibition imposed by Non-State Armed Groups against selling beers associated with the Francophone community, amidst the ongoing Anglophone crisis.
Conflict has gripped the primarily English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon since separatists declared independence in 2017, following decades of grievances over perceived discrimination by the francophone majority.
President Paul Biya, 91, who has ruled Cameroon for over 41 years, has resisted calls for greater autonomy, responding instead with a crackdown.
The latest incident occurred late Saturday in a bar in Bamenda, the main city in the Northwest region.
An “armed terrorist group on motorbikes” launched “two explosive grenades at people before disappearing,” according to the statement released late Monday.
A local decree has now banned the use of motorbikes from 6:30 pm to 6:30 am in the centre of Bamenda until further notice.
Police in Mezam department, where the city is located, condemned the “barbaric act on civilians” and urged the community to collaborate with officials and security forces to identify and apprehend the perpetrators.
Both separatists and government forces have been accused of committing atrocities in the ongoing conflict, which began at the end of 2016. Human Rights Watch estimates that since then, at least 6,000 civilians have been killed by both sides.
