YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon's military says it has killed least 30 separatists in the past few days in the country's restive North West region.

Military spokesman Col. Didier Badjeck said Wednesday that figures may increase after intense fighting in the Mayo Binka area.

Badjeck said no soldiers died in the fighting. He said the military freed people held by separatists and more than 100 fleeing the violence have arrived in the capital, Yaounde.

Hundreds have been killed in the past year in fighting between the military and armed separatists in Cameroon's northwestern and southwestern regions. The trouble started a year ago the government clamped down on peaceful demonstrations by English-speaking teachers and lawyers protesting what they said was their marginalization by Cameroon's French-speaking majority.

Separatists demand an independent state, they call Ambazonia.