Yaounde, Feb 7 (IANS): At least 15 people were killed and several others injured on Wednesday in Bole-Bakundu, a locality in Southwest, one of the two troubled English-speaking regions of Cameroon, sources said.

"I personally counted 15 dead bodies, men and women. All of them were shot in the market. They were not armed," a local resident was was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.

There were conflicting reports of who committed the act. Locals claimed that they were shot by government forces but government said they were killed in a clash between the military and armed separatists.

"They (separatists) blocked the road to the locality and the military opened fire to scare them. They retaliated and soldiers decided to invade the area. Most of those killed died in the crossfire," a local official who preferred not to be named told Xinhua.

The army is yet to comment on the incident.

On Tuesday, at least four civilians were shot dead in the two war-torn Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest as armed separatists began what they called a "10-day lockdown".

Separatists have banned all sorts of activities in the regions from Tuesday to February 14 as a move to disrupt National Youth Day activities expected to be celebrated on February 11.

Since November 2017, government forces have been clashing with armed separatist forces who want the two regions to secede from the largely French-speaking nation and form a new country called "Ambazonia".