YAOUNDÉ: A Tunisian engineer has been killed by his kidnappers in southwestern Cameroon, but three of his colleagues have been rescued, the Cameroonian government said.

The body of Khaled Tinsa was recovered on Monday during a rescue operation that freed another Tunisian engineer and two Cameroonian technicians, government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary said. He did not say when Tinsa died.

The group, employed by Tunisian road construction company Soroubat, was abducted last week while building a road between the towns of Kumba and Isangele, Bakary said.

The government blamed “terrorists”, a phrase it uses for English-speaking secessionists who have been waging a guerrilla campaign against state security forces in the mostly French-speaking Central African nation since late last year.

A kidnapping would mark a change in tactics for the separatists who have focused on ambushing police and army checkpoints.

One of the main secessionist forces operating in the area, the Ambazonian Defence Force, could not be immediately reached for comment.