Insurgents Attack School in Cameron, Murder 5 Children

At least five children have been killed after suspected insurgents opened fire at a school in Cameron, according to reports.

Officials told reporters that at least nine others have been injured seriously during the shooting at the Mother Francisca school in Fiango, Kumba, in Cameroon's Southwest region on Saturday.

The attack was blamed on secessionist insurgents who are hoping to form a breakaway state in Cameroon's English-speaking west as part of the ongoing Anglophone crisis in the country.

"They attacked around noon. They found the children in the class and they opened fire on them," Kumba sub-prefect Ali Anougou said.

Senior Divisional Officer of Meme, Ntou Ndong Chamberlain, also blamed the killing of the children on separatist fighters, according to Newsweek.

"We have been deeply affected this morning as some 'Amba' (separatist) fighters went in Fiango in a private school and attacked innocent students," he said while reporting that there had been at least four deaths to Journal du Cameroon, a local daily newspaper.

Akere Muna, lawyer and Chairman of the International Anti-Corruption Conference Council, condemned the attack on social media.

"Unimaginable & unacceptable! What happened in Kumba should wake us all up," Muna tweeted. "What barbaric instinct can push anyone to go to a school and randomly fire at kids, killing some? Is this who we have become?

Numbed by savagery and mayhem we are slowly losing our humanity.

Nigeria-based CNN editor Stephanie Busari added: "I am seeing the most horrific images of children who have been attacked in a school in Cameroon.

"School should be the one place where children are safe. So many humanitarian crises across Africa  arose right now."

Cameroon has been engaged in a sort of civil war for the past few years as Anglophone secessionists protest against President Paul Biya's French-speaking government.

The militants claim they are discriminated against by the country's French-speaking majority.

The separatists have target villages and schools and part of the ongoing battles which have left thousands dead and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.