YAOUNDE, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon's Yaounde Military Tribunal on Tuesday sentenced 10 separatist leaders seeking independence of the English-speaking part of the country to life in prison over rebellion and terrorism charges.
The convicted have 10 days to appeal the verdict, judge Lt. Col. Misse Njone said while handing down the verdict. Among them was Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, president of the self-declared breakaway state called "Ambazonia," made up of the Northwest and the Southwest, two Anglophone regions of Francophone-majority Cameroon.
Tabe and 46 other separatist activists were arrested in Nigeria in January 2018 then extradited to Cameroon.
Cameroon government forces and armed separatists have been clashing since 2017 after the separatists declared the "independence" of the two Anglophone regions.
Over 300 security forces have been killed since then, according to the Cameroon army. The number of civilians and armed separatists killed in the clashes is not officially available. Enditem
