One dead as Cameroon rebels threaten lock-down

One person has been shot dead in Cameroon’s South-West region as separatists seek to enforce a two-week lockdown.

"A woman was shot this morning as she went to the farm,” the Mayor of Buea Patrick Ekema Esunge told the BBC.

He said however that normal business was continuing, albeit timidly. Yet in the country’s neighbouring North-West region, it's a complete lock-down.

"The streets are empty. No taxis, not even motor-bikes are circulating," said John Fru Ndi, chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Front said.

Separatists called for a complete lock-down of the two English-speaking regions as a means of frustrating celebrations marking an annual national holiday called Youth Day which, is due on 11 February.

On that day in 1961, Cameroon’s English speakers colonised by Britain, voted in a referendum to gain independence by joining the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon.