Over one fifth of the population in Cameroon have used hard drugs, according to a government-led survey quoted Monday by the country's communication minister and government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma.

"The National Anti-Drug Committee is formal: 21% of the population have already experienced the hard drugs, 10% are regular users," Tchiroma told a press conference in the capital Yaounde.

Among the regular drug users, 60 percent are between 20 and 25 years old, and more than 12,000 young people under 15 are involved in the use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, according to Tchiroma, who blamed growing insecurity in the English-speaking part of Cameroon on drug consumption among youths.

The Anglophone crisis "illustrates the unprecedented and negative effects of drugs used by our young compatriots", Tchiroma said, adding the government will take measures to curb the situation.

According to the latest death toll established by the government, 109 security forces have been killed since the armed insurgency started a year ago in the Anglophone regions of the country. It is unclear how many of separatist forces have died.

The armed separatist forces want the two regions, North West and South West, to secede from the majority French-speaking nation and form a new nation called "Ambazonia".