Cameroon’s President Paul Biya is facing one of the biggest threats in his 35 years in power as a separatist movement in the country’s English speaking regions gains ground.<br /><br />Soldiers shot dead at least eight people and wounded others in the two English-speaking regions on Sunday, the anniversary<br />of Anglophone Cameroon’s independence from Britain<br /><br />The strife began in November when English-speaking teachers and lawyers in the Northwest and Southwest regions, frustrated<br />with having to work in French, took to the streets calling for reforms and greater autonomy. <br /><br />The thousands who protested around the country were no longer calling for reform, but for a separate state for Cameroon’s nearly five million English speakers.<br /><br />Biya openly criticised the protests in a statement on Twitter following Sunday’s violence.<br /><br />I strongly condemn all acts of violence, regardless of their sources and their perpetrators […]: https://t.co/hw08zgxeDQ #PaulBiya #Cameroon pic.twitter.com/0n6ZfZKFgk— President Paul Biya (@PR_Paul_Biya) October 1, 2017<br /><br /><br />Human rights groups have raised concerns about increasing repression under President Biya, while the true size and influence of the independence movement remains hard to<br />gauge. <br /><br />Many leaders are in jail or exile.<br />
