DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A Cameroon presidential decree says Cameroon has dropped charges and released civil society leaders and several others who were arrested and jailed amid unrest and protests in the country months ago.

Amnesty International said Wednesday it welcomed the government's decision to release two Anglophone activists and others who spent more than six months in jail after arrests for protests over the official use of French in the English-speaking part of the country.

The rights group said the activists should not have been arrested or held for helping to organize peaceful, non-violent protests that began last year. Cameroon's Anglophone population held months of protests against what they called discrimination by the majority French-speaking population.

The decree Wednesday said the president made the decision to pacify concerns in various regions.