Cameroon army said on Friday it has killed three suspected armed separatists in Esu, a locality in Northwest, one of the two war-torn English-speaking regions of the country.

During the operation, "the chief of Esu village who was kidnapped was freed" and "three secessionist terrorists" were killed, the army said in a statement that was published on its Facebook page on Friday without mentioning the date of the operation.

The Cameroon army regularly refers to armed separatists as "secessionist terrorists."

The army also helped in rehabilitating some bridges that were cut off by the separatists, the statement said.

Fighting between government forces and armed separatist groups has been ongoing since October 2017 after the separatists declared the independence of a nation called "Ambazonia" in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest.

According to the United Nations, over 200,000 Cameroonians have been displaced internally and at least 30,000 others have fled to neighbouring Nigeria.