YAOUNDE, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least 14 civilians, including women and children, were killed early Wednesday when suspected separatist fighters raided a community in Cameroon's restive Northwest Region, local authorities said.
Fourteen people were also injured in the attack that occurred at around 5:30 a.m. local time in Mbandfung Village in the English-speaking region's Ndu subdivision, the region's governor, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, confirmed.
"The separatist terrorists invaded the Gidado neighborhood of the village, targeting the Mbororo community who live there," Abdou Kanfon Borno, mayor of the Ndu Council, told Xinhua by phone. "There were no clashes. The villagers were still asleep. They just opened fire on everyone, including children and women. A respected community elder was killed."
Earlier reports indicated that 12 people were killed, but the death toll rose to 14 after several critically injured victims succumbed to their injuries.
Lele Lafrique said that six women and seven children, aged between two and 11, were among the victims.
"This is a massacre. The government has prescribed urgent security measures to track down the terrorists who committed this atrocity," he told Xinhua by phone, adding that houses were burned and cattle killed during the attack.
The motive behind the attack remains unknown, and the separatist fighters have yet to comment.
There have been frequent deadly clashes between separatist fighters and armed Mbororo tribesmen since 2017, when an armed separatist conflict erupted in Cameroon's two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest. ■