YAOUNDE, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Unknown gunmen on Sunday kidnapped a senior government official working at the Southwest governor's office in Buea, chief town of Southwest, one of two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, according to the Cameroon army.

"Franckline Ngwa Che who works at the governor's office in Southwest was abducted early this morning (Sunday). He was kidnapped from his home by unknown men who were well armed. The kidnappers are demanding a ransom amounting to millions of CFA franc," a military official who opted for anonymity told Xinhua.

"We have been told to do everything possible to secure his safe release," the official said.

Early Sunday, local authorities said a regional chief of Cameroon's Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection was kidnapped in Northwest, one of the two troubled Anglophone regions.

"It seems the kidnappers are now targeting government officials," the military official added.

Kidnappings have become rampant in the two troubled Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest where armed separatists want to create a new nation they called "Ambazonia".

The United Nations estimates that at least 430,000 people in Cameroon have been displaced internally by the conflict.