Three soldiers have been charged with murder over a massacre in western Cameroon, where security forces are fighting anglophone separatists, the army said Thursday.

"The three Cameroonian soldiers have been placed in provisional detention in Yaounde military prison," army spokesman Colonel Cyrille Atonfack Guemo told AFP, adding that they had been charged with murder.

READ | 14 children among up to 22 dead in Cameroon massacre: UN

The preliminary conclusions, published in mid-April, found that three "uncontrolled" soldiers who had disobeyed orders killed 10 children and three women with the help of local auxiliaries from the Fulani, or Peul, ethnic group.

In addition to being charged with the murder, the three - two troopers and a sergeant - are also accused of disobeying orders, destruction of property and arson, the army said on Thursday.

In its own probe, the rights watchdog said between 10 and 15 troops took part in the massacre, including members of an elite unit, the Fast Intervention Battalion (BIR).