"It was quite simply an unfortunate accident, the collateral result of security operations in the region," Atonfack said in a statement.
He said four soldiers and two gendarmes had been carrying out nighttime reconnaissance on foot near a home that had been "transformed into a fortress" with a stockpile of weapons.
They came under heavy fire, and exchanges caused "several containers of fuel to explode, followed by a blaze which spread several neighbouring homes", Atonfack said.
Defense Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Rene Claude Meke said told state broadcaster CRTV the military has been professional in its fight against the separatists.
"We need of the support of the population in these difficult moments," he said. "They should come to us, inform us and strictly respect orders and advice we give to them so that this crisis which has overstayed should come to an end."
Aid workers narrate what happened
[...] Bruno Ngeh, a 38-year-old teacher who escaped the attack, said he lost many family members including his wife's aunt and her eight children. He said the military was responsible for the killings.
"Little babies, pregnant women were killed. How do you explain this?" he asked. "They never knew that they will be killed in their sleep by the very military that is supposed to protect them."
A resident who wanted to remain anonymous told AFP by phone that 35 bodies had been recovered and the army was to blame.
The Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC), one of the two main opposition parties, blamed "these crimes" mainly on the regime and the head of the security forces.
A key figure in the separatist movement, lawyer Felix Agbor Mballa, in a Facebook post also accused "state defence forces" of carrying out the killings.
Samuel Ikome Sako, who calls himself interim president of the Republic of Ambazonia, the state claimed by the separatists, blamed the military for the deaths of civilians.
"Our own people are living in forests like animals," he said. "This is wickedness, this is genocide going on. We are losing hundreds per day." [...]
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