YAOUNDE, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of demonstrators, brandishing placards and chanting slogans, gathered Monday in front of the French embassy to Cameroon to protest against what they described as Paris' intervention in the internal affairs of the country.

"We will not give up our country for France," one of the protesters, Doret Ndongo, said. "Cameroon is an independent country and can solve its problems. We don't need France to tell us what to do and what not to do."

The protest came after remarks by French president Emmanuel Macron on Saturday promising to put "maximum pressure" on Cameroonian president Paul Biya over separatist conflicts in Cameroon's English-speaking regions.

Macron was responding to a Cameroonian activist at a farm show in Paris.

"The manner of the remarks (by the French president) was insensitive and condescending, giving the history between Africa and Europe," said a senior member of ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement and former minister of forestry and wildlife, Elvis Ngolle Ngolle.

On Sunday, Cameroon's Minister of Communication Emmanuel Rene Sadi urged "foreign friendly countries" to desist from listening to activists whose aim is "to tarnish the reputation of Cameroon."

Armed separatists seek to form a breakaway state they call Ambazonia in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon. They have been clashing with government forces since 2017, causing a major humanitarian crisis among the local population. Enditem

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