By Nnenna Ibeh

Some yet-to-be identified gunmen have attacked Bamenda, Cameroon's biggest English-speaking city killing at least nine people including a newly wedded couple.

The victims, identified as Simplice Lontsi Tsomene, 37, and his wife Hélène Raisa Tanga, 25, were known as loving parents to three children and were also the proud owners of a phone shop.

The gunmen were said to have launched an attack at a busy junction in two unmarked vehicles ordering people around the area to lie down.

They also started to shoot at people as some of the residents who panicked tried to run.

Some eyewitnesses said the gunmen suspected to be separatist rebels accused the residents of  being "black legs".

The action of the gunmen, the eye witnesses said, suggested that the victims were collaborating with the government or not respecting the orders of the separatists.

Rebels who want to create a separate country called Ambazonia for Cameroon's English-speaking regions have been locked in conflict with the government since 2017, and Bamenda is one of their hotspots.

A day before these latest shootings, troops attacked a residence in the same neighbourhood of Nacho, killing five young men.

The situation is rapidly deteriorating, with horrendous human rights abuses and atrocities being committed. Amnesty International recently published a report detailing alleged murders and rapes by both sides in the Anglophone armed conflict and urging the government to investigate.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the killings, some separatist Ambazonia leaders in the diaspora have continued to urge their soldiers to go after those they brand as "black legs" and deal with them mercilessly.