YAOUNDE, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on Wednesday urged citizens in the country's restive Anglophone region of Northwest to embrace peace, saying that it's the foremost prerequisite for the development of the region.
"I bring to you a message of peace. Let us embrace peace, forgive each other and develop our region," Ngute told a crowd at a rally in Bamenda, chief town of the region where he's on a four-day peace mission.
He said that the government also was counting on the women whose children have joined armed separatist groups to convince their children to drop their arms.
"The power of a woman is very strong. I am calling on all mothers of the Northwest region to make use of this unique connection and exceptional power of peace by talking to their children to leave the bushes, drop their arms and embrace peace," Ngute said.
At least 13 separatist fighters dropped their arms symbolically at the ceremonial ground after the prime minister's speech and urged other fighters to do the same.
Gunshots were fired and the prime minister, who was addressing a group of people coming to welcome, was hurriedly ushered into his car by security forces when he arrived the region on Tuesday.
Cameroon's two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest have been ravaged by a four-year armed separatist conflict since 2017. Enditem