A pastor was allegedly shot and killed by military forces in Cameroon last month amid the ongoing violence in the country’s Anglophone regions.
Pastor Keloh Elijah, a graduate of Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary in Ndu, was reported to have been killed during a military invasion in the Mfumte area where other people were also said to have been killed, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Christian Post this week.
It is unclear at the moment how many were killed during the invasion in Mfumte.
The pastor’s death comes as the government has cracked down on separatist activists in the English-speaking communities in the northwest and southwest parts of the country, areas that militant groups have self-proclaimed the Republic of Ambazonia.
According to Efi Tembon, a ministry leader active in Bible translation efforts who is working to provide assistance to the pastor’s family, Elijah served at Bitu Baptist Church until March 6 and began ministering at Berean Baptist Church in Mfumte on March 30.
On April 1, Elijah was said to have left for a missions trip to a nearby village. He returned about a week later on April 7, the day in which military forces allegedly descended on the area.
Elijah reportedly returned home to greet his wife and six children. But he then left to go to church. It was around 8:30 a.m. when three gunshots were heard.
“Pastor Keloh had been shot by the military according to eyewitnesses,” Tembon explained in an email. “Many other people were killed in the area. The military has search and lotted homes and burnt down several houses.”
Because of this, the local community was forced to “flee into the forest,” he added.
“Some elderly people who could not flee were left behind. Many of the Bible translators fled into the forest. The majority of them have now crossed into Nigeria.”
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: Christian Post, Samuel Smith
BCNN1 WP 