Last Updated: February 25, 2023, 23:16 IST
One athlete and 17 spectators are reported to have suffered accidents. (File Photo)
More than 450 athletes took half within the “Race of Hope”
Three explosions at the beginning of a marathon wounded 18 individuals on Saturday in an English-speaking area of Cameroon stricken by separatist unrest, officers mentioned.
The explosions focused the “Race of Hope” annual marathon in Buea, in the Southwest region, 70 kilometres (43 miles) west of the country’s economic capital Douala.
Sports Minister Narcisse Mouelle Kombi advised AFP.
“There have been a number of makes an attempt at disruption with three explosions,” said regional governor Bernard Okalia Bilai. “These explosions had no impact on the race,” he added.
The self-described Ambazonian Defence Forces, a number one armed group in English-speaking Cameroon, claimed accountability for the assault in a video on WhatsApp, saying they focused troopers defending the athletes.
Cameroon’s primarily English-speaking Northwest and Southwest areas have been gripped by battle since separatists declared independence in 2017 after many years of grievances over perceived discrimination by the French-speaking majority.
President Paul Biya, who has dominated the central African nation with an iron fist for 40 years, has resisted requires wider autonomy and responded with a crackdown.
The battle within the former French colony has claimed greater than 6,000 lives and compelled greater than 1,000,000 individuals to flee their properties, in response to the International Crisis Group assume tank.
The United Nations says each side have dedicated crimes towards civilians.
The US embassy in Cameroon condemned the explosion on Twitter and wished these injured within the assault “a fast restoration”.
More than 450 athletes took part in the “Race of Hope”, in response to an official doc seen by AFP, which takes runners to the summit of Mount Cameroon, an energetic volcano and the nation’s highest peak.
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