Gunmen have stormed the Mother Francisca School in Kumba Cameroon, killing at least six children and injuring dozens.
Confirming the incident which happened on Saturday to newsmen, a sub-prefect, Ali Nuhu, said: “the gunmen found the children in class and opened fire on them.”
A local education official said the victims of the attack were between the age of 12 and 14.
Some children were injured in an attempt to jump from the second floor to escape the attack.
It was not clear why the school was targeted but one of the prefects said secessionist insurgents were behind the attack.
However, a secessionist leader said a statement expressing “disgust” at the killings would be released.
Parts of Cameroon have been plunged into unrest since the Anglophone groups began to push for their independence in 2016.
Some schools in the Anglophone region have recently reopened following a four-year shut down due to threats from separatists fighting for an independent state of Ambazonia.
The protest for independence started over the increasing use of French in courts and schools in Cameroon’s English-speaking heartlands.
Anglophone activists say the country’s French-speaking majority is marginalizing the English speaking minority.
A security force crackdown led to some Anglophone civilians taking up arms against the government, led by the Francophone president Paul Biya.
The North-West and South-West regions, took a violent turn in 2017, a development which has so far led to the deaths of thousands while hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
