YAOUNDE, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon Minister of Defense Joseph Beti Assomo said Wednesday four armed separatists were killed by government forces on Tuesday after the death of an American missionary in Bambui, a locality in Northwest, one of the two war-torn Anglophone regions of the country.
"Terrorists that killed the American missionary Charles Trumann Wesco in Bambui Tuesday Oct. 30, 2018, have been neutralized." Assomo said in a statement that was released early Wednesday.
On Tuesday, armed separatist fighters blamed government forces for killing the missionary in a crossfire but Assomo denied the allegations, stressing that the missionary was shot by the separatists whom he called "terrorists."
According to Assomo, the separatists killed Wesco as they made their way to attack the Bambili Gendarmerie Brigade and the University of Bamenda.
"A lieutenant colonel and a student were injured." Assomo said.
Medics at the Bamenda Regional Hospital where Wesco was rushed to after the shooting said he was shot in the head while in his car.
"We tried in vain to save his life." Kingue Thompson Njie, director of Bamenda Regional Hospital, told Xinhua, added that Wesco's wife and children who were with him in the vehicle were unharmed.
Fighting between government forces and armed separatist groups has displaced over 200,000 Cameroonians internally, according to the United Nations.
More than 150 government forces have been killed, according to the Cameroon army.
Clashes started in October 2017 after the separatists declared the "independence" of a nation called "Ambazonia" in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest.
