Cameroon to re-run vote in 11 Anglophone areas

Voters in parts of Cameroon's restive English-speaking regions are to go to the polls for a second time, after the country's Constitutional Council ordered a re-run of the local and parliamentary elections in 11 constituencies.

The date for this new vote has yet to be set.

The ruling, announced on state broadcaster CRTV on Tuesday evening, follows complaints brought by numerous political parties about the conduct of the polls earlier this month.

They cited various reasons, including the distance voters were expected to travel.

"They took the polling centres far away from the people… How do you expect people to move 20km?," the opposition SDF's lawyer Valentine Njenje is quoted by journalist Mimi Mefo as saying.

The vote was boycotted altogether by the MRC party, whose leader Maurice Kamto told the BBC the Anglophone crisis was "a major reason" for pulling out.

An upsurge in violence has forced at least 8,000 Cameroonians into neighbouring Nigeria in the last few weeks alone, the UN said.

Ahead of the vote on 9 February, Anglophone separatist fighters warned people to stay away from the ballot box.

On polling day, clashes were reported in the town of Muyuka and witnesses reported hearing gunfire in the city of Buea and Kuma town.

Speaking for the governning RDPC party on Tuesday, Grégoire Owana told state television the decision to re-run the vote was frustrating but that the party "abides by the decision".