Cameroon’s government said on Tuesday that a group of soldiers killed nine villagers, including an 18-month-old girl, in a “manifestly disproportionate” and “hasty” response to a confrontation in the Northwest region last week.
The four soldiers were searching for a missing comrade in the village of Missong when they came across a group of angry villagers at night, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
The victims were four men, four women and the infant, it said. A one-year-old child was lightly injured and taken to hospital.
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The statement was an unusual admission of blame by the army, which civilians and rights groups have accused of numerous killings and abuses during an ongoing separatist conflict.
Last year a mob lynched a military police officer after he killed a five-year-old girl when he fired on a car at a checkpoint. A month later, a policeman killed an eight-year-old girl in similar circumstances.
The conflict has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced nearly 1 million since it started.
The ministry said the four soldiers have been arrested and an investigation opened, and offered its condolences to the families of the victims. (Reuters)
