A Kenyan Roman Catholic priest serving in Cameroon has been killed in the country’s restive southwest, where government forces are fighting separatist fighters.
Father Cosmas Omboto Ondari, a Mill Hill priest attached to the Diocese of Mamfe, died on Wednesday. Local media reported the killing but did not give details on how it happened.
According to the St Joseph Missionary Society, Fr Ondari was ordained in Kisii, south-west of Nairobi, in March last year alongside two other priests before being assigned to Mamfe.
Bishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea of the Diocese of Mamfe could not be reached for comment on Thursday. A close aide said the bishop was preparing a press statement on the death.
The killing adds to the number of clergy caught in Cameroon’s two-year conflict in the English-speaking regions. The crisis began in 2016 as a strike by lawyers and teachers before escalating last year into an armed confrontation after separatists entered the fight and declared the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.
Among earlier victims was US Baptist missionary Charles Truman Wesco, who was killed in Bambui near Bamenda last October. Roman Catholic priest Fr Alexander Nougi Sob was also killed in Muyuka in July.
Rights groups and other monitors, including Amnesty International, say at least 400 civilians and more than 175 security officers have died in the violence. They also estimate that more than 300,000 people have fled their homes, with many now living in forests or crossing into Nigeria.
