Earlier this week, panic gripped the town after a loud explosion rocked residents.

“I was outside with my children, doing some chores, when all of a sudden we heard a terrifying explosion and we ran inside the house,” a resident of Mile 2, Nkwen, told Mimi Mefo Infos.

Ayaba Cho Lucas, a separatist leader in the diaspora, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was directed against government forces. “There was an attack on an enemy target at kilometre 2 of Nkwen,’ said the leader of the armed separatist militia dubbed the Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF).

“Two other surgical strikes were carried out in Bamenda this morning,” he added. During the seven-year armed conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, homemade bombs have been a common tactic used by the separatists. The blasts, often used by separatists to target military personnel and disrupt public ceremonies, have also killed civilians.