Eleven students were injured Wednesday by an explosive device in the lecture hall of a university in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest, which is in the midst of a bloody conflict between law enforcement agencies and armed separatists, the university’s rector announced.
“The device fell to the ground and exploded,” Horace Ngomo Manga, vice-chancellor (rector) of the University of Buea, told CRTV, the state radio. The explosion “injured 11 students, one boy and ten girls,” he said, adding simply that the victims were in “stable condition.
He did not detail the nature of the device nor did he say who might have launched it.
The attack has not been claimed, but armed separatists regularly attack schools and universities that they accuse of promoting French-language education. They have also recently increased their attacks on the army with improvised explosive devices.
Buea is the capital of the Southwest region, one of two regions, along with the Northwest, where the population is predominantly from the English-speaking minority in this predominantly French-speaking Central African country.