Local sources familiar with the incident say armed separatists stormed an off-license at Bajing, a precinct in Kumbo, Cameroon’s North West Region. The gunmen are said to have opened fire on grounds that the local population is celebrating and enjoying Christmas while they are in the bushes fighting for independence.

“We are still in shock. The amba fighters killed 18-year-old Benedict Kindzeka Kininla from Bamngoi and Platini Fonlon from To'oy who is in his 20s. Several other persons who received bullet wounds are fighting for their lives in the hospital. The amba fighters say we had no right to celebrate Christmas while they are in the bush fighting. Did we send them to be in the bush? They have been advised to leave the bushes and get a better life, but they have refused to listen,” a local familiar with the story told Cameroon-Info.Net.

As we sought to further confirm the story, a native of Nso with roots in the palace said: "It’s true. The amba boys have indeed proven that they are against the population. They started by kidnapping the Fon of Nso, killed his sons, and are now targeting other civilians. We cannot watch this happen anymore. We have to rise up against these so-called freedom fighters."

The imposing facemasks did little to mask the raw emotion of locals in To’oy, Badjing, and Bamngoi upon receiving news of the Christmas Day separatist point-blank killings.

The Christmas Day shootings in Kumbo come on the heels of several other attacks on civilians by the armed men.

Days ago, locals in Ntamulung caught two of them and roasted them alive for harassing the local population.

Cameroon’s state forces have been battling to dislodge armed separatists who pitched their tents in the North West and South West Regions since Anglophone protests transformed into an armed conflict in 2017.

Corporate demands by Common Law Lawyers and Anglophone Teachers led to protests in November 2016. The street demonstrations later morphed into ongoing running gun battles between state forces and armed separatist fighters in the predominantly English-speaking regions, leading to untold destruction of human lives, their habitats, and livelihoods.

Tit-for-tat killings, kidnappings, arsons, maiming, and outright terror have become part of daily lives in some parts of the English-speaking regions.