Suspected separatist militants in Cameroon are reported to have killed at least 20 people in an attack on a village near the border with Nigeria.

Local mayor Ekwalle Martin said more than 60 others were injured during Sunday’s raid on the village of Obonyi II, in the South-West region.

“The separatists wanted the inhabitants to pay them money each month, they refused, and that’s why they [the gunmen] attacked,” he told the AFP news agency.

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On Tuesday Cameroon’s army said it had freed a kidnapped senator and several other hostages.

Elizabeth Regina Mundi was seized last month in the North-West region, where Anglophone separatists have mounted an armed campaign to break away from the mainly French-speaking country.

The International Crisis Group says more than 6,000 people have been killed and more than 700,000 displaced in clashes between militants and security forces since 2017.

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