France, Aug. 13 -- France's President Emmanuel Macron has formally recognised what he called France's "repressive violence" in Cameroon during and after the country's fight for independence in the late 1950s - a rare admission of a long-overlooked part of France's colonial history.

In a letter to Cameroonian President Paul Biya, published on Tuesday but sent last month, Macron described the conflict as a "war" and accepted France's "role and responsibility" in events that left tens of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The statement follows a landmark report in January by a joint historical commission, which found that France's counter-insurgency campaign included mass forced displacement, internment camps and support f...