A Kenyan priest was killed in francophone Cameroon’s volatile English-speaking Southwest region where violence has surged after separatists declared an independent state, church sources told AFP on Thursday.

“A Kenyan priest was shot dead in Kembong yesterday,” one source said.

“There was no fighting, he was in the… church in Kembong when he was killed,” another official said in Buea, capital of the Southwest.

The church suggested the priest may have been killed by the military.

“There are no ‘Amba Boys’ in Kembong at this moment but the Cameroonian army is there,” one source said, referring to armed separatists fighting for an independent state called Ambazonia.

AFP could not independently verify the claim.

The priest was working with people displaced by the conflict.

An American Catholic missionary was killed at the beginning of November in the Northeast region. The government blamed separatists but Washington said he died in cross-fire.

The UN recently warned of worsening violence in Cameroon. The conflict has displaced more than 437,000 people, according to UN data released in October.

AFP