Cameroon troops kill 15 armed separatist fighters in crisis-hit Anglophone region

YAOUNDE - Fifteen armed separatist fighters were killed in Chomba, a locality in the Northwest, one of the two crisis-hit English-speaking regions of Cameroon after government forces raided a building where the fighters have been camping, the Cameroon army said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the army, two separatist fighters were captured and eleven hunting rifles, two hunting pistols, one revolver and ammunition were seized during the operation.

"No soldier died in the clash. Two soldiers sustained minor injuries during the operation," a security source told Xinhua.

Since November last year, government forces have been clashing with armed separatists in the Northwest and Southwest, the two Anglophone regions of the country where about 80 percent of population are native in French.

The armed separatist forces have declared an independent state in the two regions called "Ambazonia."

According to the government, over 100 security personnel and an unknown number of separatist have died in the clashes; some military officers estimate that more than 200 armed separatists have been killed.