A man was killed on Sunday in an improvised explosive device attack in western Cameroon, which authorities suspect was carried out by separatists belonging to the English-speaking minority who have been fighting the army for the past seven years, local authorities said.

The attack took place two hours after a student parade had passed through the site on the occasion of the annual national youth day, the state radio and television network CRTV reported.

In the community of Nkabe, “an improvised explosive device hidden in a food outlet was detonated not far from the site of the celebration (…) two hours after the parade,” the state network said.

Videos uploaded to social media sites show children in blue school uniforms running in all directions and people giving first aid to the slightly injured.

The authorities counted “about forty wounded, among them four in serious condition, and one death,” Adolf Lele Lafric, governor in the northwestern administrative region, told CRTV, without giving details on the identities of the victims, noting, however, that “three were arrested suspects”.

Suspicions “turn on the separatists”, commented CRTV.

The northwest and southeast regions of Cameroon — where the population is mainly English-speaking in the predominantly French-speaking central African country of about thirty million people — have been turned since late 2016 into a theater of extremely bloody armed conflict between armed movements demanding independence. and the law enforcement forces massively deployed there by President Paul Biya, in power for more than 41 years without a break.

Rebels and armed forces have been repeatedly accused by international NGOs of crimes against civilians, who are the majority of the conflict’s victims.

Attacks with improvised explosive devices, generally of low power, are not rare.

Last Tuesday, a vice prefect and four of his associates were kidnapped by separatists on their way to Nkabe. Only the official managed to escape: he was later located by the army.

Authorities said they found the bodies of a policeman who was guarding him and his driver. They suffered multiple bullet wounds.

Separatist organizations often kidnap civilians, including public officials. Sometimes they shoot hostages they accuse of being “collaborators” of the state, however they release most of them, usually after a ransom is paid.

The rebels, as well as the army and the police, are often accused by national and international NGOs of crimes and atrocities against civilians: some target mainly French-speakers, whom they accuse of being “collaborators” of Yaoundé; others launch operations to punish people who they accuse of being sympathizers with the separatists.

This conflict erupted in late 2016, after President Biya ordered the violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations by Anglophones protesting their ostracism and marginalization by the central government.

On January 12, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) emphasized that “at least 6,000 civilians have been killed by government forces and separatist fighters” in the more than seven years of the armed conflict.