Separatists say Cameroon journalist killed by mistake

DOUALA — English-speaking separatists in Cameroon admitted on Tuesday they had shot dead a journalist by mistake when targeting an army commander in the restive Northwest region.

Anye Nde Nsoh, who worked for The Advocate weekly newspaper, died in a bar in the regional capital Bamenda on Sunday, Mezam department prefect Simon Emile Mooh said in a statement.

"A group of armed terrorists ... cowardly and coldly murdered" the 26-year-old, Mooh said.

The national authorities use the term terrorist for the separatists fighting for independence.

"He was shot in a bar. We do not know if he was the target or just a collateral victim," The Advocate's publisher Tarhyang Enowbikah Tabe told AFP.

But Capo Daniel, a leader of the "Ambazonians", who have proclaimed local independence, said the separatists did kill the journalist by mistake.

"The target was a commanding officer" of the army "who frequented the bar", Capo Daniel said, admitting "an error over his identity".

"It was a case of mistaken identity," he said in a video posted on his Facebook page.

"The target was a commanding [army] officer... who visits that particular bar," said Capo Daniel.

"The operation was carried out by Ambazonian forces."

An army officer who asked not to be named told AFP that Capo Daniel calls himself the "commander" of the group's Dark Forces, and is one of the senior separatist leaders living in exile.