One person has been killed and around 100 people arrested after demonstrators clashed with security forces in an English speaking city in Cameroon.

The protests arose out of strikes by both teachers and lawyers who say French is now dominating schools and courtrooms in Bandema.

Some protesters also blamed France, which used to rule the francophone part of Cameroon as a colony, for the apparent language bias.

“What we want is for France to back off. They should leave our system. We have a proper means to organise our educational system, we have proper means of our health system, it is our time of freedom,” said one protester.

Cameroon has ten regions, eight of them speak mainly French and two mainly English, and that mirrors the country’s colonial history – Britain ruled the anglophone region and France the francophone region before they united to form an independent Cameroon.