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Cameroon troops rescue Tunisian but compatriot killed by abductors

Yaound - The Cameroonian army on Tuesday rescued a Tunisian and three other local hostages in a special operation but the other Tunisian was killed by his abductors, the government said.

The army strike "enabled the freeing of three employees of a Tunisian company kidnapped on March 15 by some terrorists" from a construction site, a statement said.

The second Tunisian engineer was "killed by his abductors" and his corpse retrieved, government spokesperson and Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said, adding that "four terrorists died in the operation."

The kidnapping took place in Cameroon's anglophone region where tensions have soared since separatists on October 1 declared the self-proclaimed republic of "Ambazonia".

The Tunisian's death was the first killing of a foreigner in the restive region.

In recent weeks, the separatists in the Southwest and Northwest English-speaking regions have threatened to attack foreign businesses.

The west African country has had a tortuous colonial history that saw it pass from German rule to French and British hands, and the anglophone minority complain of having long been marginalised by the French-speaking elite.

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At the weekend a kidnapped top civil servant, Ivo Leke Tambo, recently appointed chairperson of Cameroon's anglophone educational board, was released but did not reveal the circumstances surrounding his liberation.

The security situation has further deteriorated since 47 separatists, including their leader, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, were extradited in January from Nigeria back to Cameroon.

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