Thousands of English-speaking Cameroonians on Tuesday violently protested what they called attempts to marginalise them in the mainly French-speaking West African nation.

Protesting their “second-class citizenship status,” demonstrators erected barricades with burning tyres and set several houses on fire in Bamenda, the capital of the North West Region, and Buea, the capital of the South West Region.

English speakers, who live mainly in those two regions, say the government makes fewer public funds available in their parts of the country than in regions dominated by French-speakers.

“We have no roads, no hospitals, no water, nothing,” Bamenda resident Fidelis Manchou told journalists.

Police fired shots into the air and tried to disperse the crowds with tear gas.