YAOUNDE, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people were killed and several others injured in communal clashes in Cameroon's restive Anglophone region of Northwest, security sources said on Saturday.

The clashes erupted early Friday after gunmen suspected to be armed separatist fighters raided Mbororo community, killing three people, a security source in the region said.

Overnight into Saturday, armed Mbororo tribesmen retaliated by attacking Wowo village of Wimbum tribe, killing five people.

"The Mbororo people assumed that people who attacked them were from Wowo village and invaded the village at night. They searched house to house, especially in the palace, shooting people who resisted. Five people were killed, all of them men," Festus Njeba, one of the prominent leaders of Wimbum tribe told Xinhua by phone.

"Our people are in pain. These killings have to stop. Our people must not bear the consequences of an armed struggle," he added. ■