YAOUNDE, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Seven armed separatist were killed Friday in Otu, a village in the Southwest, one of the two crisis-hit English-speaking regions of Cameroon, after the military forces raided a building where the fighters had been camping, the Cameroon army said in a statement on Saturday.
"A task force undertook on October 5 a raid in Otu village that has been under the control of secessionist terrorists since April 2018," the army said in the statement that was published on its Facebook page.
Cameroon army regularly calls the armed separatists as "secessionist terrorists".
It added that a health center that was serving as their camp was destroyed and seven separatists were killed.
Government forces have beefed up security in Cameroon's restive Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest ahead of Sunday's presidential poll in the country.
The armed separatist forces had vowed to stop the election from taking place in the regions.
The government has taken exceptional measures to ensure national security. Borders are closed 48 hours to polling day. The circulation of goods and persons within the territory by road, railway, and airlines is banned from 6 p.m. Oct. 6 to 6 p.m. Oct. 7.
Since November last year, government forces have been clashing with armed separatist forces who want the two regions to secede from the majority French-speaking nation and form a new country called "Ambazonia."
