YAOUNDE, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least five Cameroonian soldiers were killed on Wednesday after a military truck transporting troops to Oku, a locality in the Anglophone region of North West, lost control before crashing into a valley, a military source told Xinhua Wednesday.

About dozen others were severely injured, the source said, adding that they were quickly rushed to a local hospital to receive medical attention.

Witnesses described a bloody scene of the accident.

The soldiers were heading to Oku to secure the residence of the Cameroonian Prime Minister Philemon Yang, where fierce fighting between armed separatist forces and Cameroon soldiers has been escalating, local media reported.

An investigation is underway to shed light on the circumstances of the accident, the source noted.

Armed separatist forces seeking to secede from the French-majority Cameroon to form a new nation called "Ambazonia" have been clashing with government forces in the Anglophone region since November 2017. At least 160,000 people have been displaced internally and 20,000 have escaped to Nigeria where they now live in refugee camps, according to the United Nations.