A solider has been killed by Cameroonian secessionists on Wednesday in Kumba, a city in the Southwest region. The 25-year old Sardi Juvinal, a former student of Maroua high school in Cameroon’s far north, was murdered at his security post by heavily armed secessionists who have been demanding independence from the West African country for more than a year.

The soldier was shot dead following the expiration of a 48-hour ultimatum by secessionists to Cameroonian authorities.

Last weekend, the armed activists released a video showing a government official they had kidnapped pleading for his life.

Animnom Aron, a delegate for social matters in the Northwest region, who was abducted weeks ago, was heard saying he would be killed should the government fail to show that the secessionists’ leaders, arrested in Nigeria on January 5, and extradited to Cameroon on January 28, were still alive.

But the ultimatum came and went without any reaction from the government of President Paul Biya..