Ekité (Cameroon) (AFP) - It was a "dirty war" waged by French colonial troops but it never made headlines and even today goes untold in school history books.
![Survivors tell of Frances dirty war in Cameroon independence](http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/562468408fc4384a4d5b3b9f3119191f4281795b.jpg)
The brutal conflict unfolded in Cameroon, which on January 1 marks its 60th anniversary of independence -- the first of 17 African countries that became free from their colonial masters in 1960.
"My life was overturned," Odile Mbouma, 72, said in the southwestern town of Ekite.