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As many as 22 villagers, including 14 children, were found dead in the anglophone area of Cameroon, the United Nations said, with an opposition party blaming the killings on the army.
Armed men carried out the massacre on Friday in the village of Ntumbo in the Northwest Region, James Nunan, a local official with the UN’s humanitarian coordination agency OCHA, told AFP news agency.
“Up to 22 civilians were killed, including a pregnant woman,” Nunan said, adding 14 children — including nine under age five, were among the dead.
Eleven of the children were girls, said Nunan, head of OCHA’s office for the Northwest and Southwest regions, which are home to the West African country’s large English-speaking minority.
One eyewitness, who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity fearing reprisals, confirmed the massacre and said he helped bury 21 bodies in “four graves in four different compounds” with the help of an associate.
Nine houses were also set ablaze and an unknown number of villagers displaced, the witness said.
Separatists in the regions have been fighting the central government for three years.
A key figure in the separatist movement, lawyer Agbor Mballa, in a Facebook post also accused “state defence forces” of carrying out the killings.
An army official denied the allegations saying simply: “False.” No other official comment was immediately available.-Al Jazeera.
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