adminYaounde – A fresh attack by the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram in Cameroon has left about 30 Cameroonians dead, a security official said on Saturday.
The regional governor, Mijiyawa Bakary, told dpa by phone that the estimated 30 people killed were civilians.“We don’t yet have all the facts, but our divisional officers and security officials are filling us in,” Bakary said.
The attack took place at Mbaljuel village in northern Cameroon, just a few kilometres from Cameroon’s border with Nigeria, L’Oeil du Sahel newspaper said.
The insurgents also carried out a similar attack along the Waza-Mora highway on Friday, killing one Cameroonian soldier.
A soldier serving near the border who did not want to be named said the dead soldier was a corporal, adding that three soldiers also were wounded in the attack.
The attackers also confiscated a vehicle belonging to the Cameroon military.
Meanwhile, the Cameroon military says it killed 53 Boko Haram militants at Soueram about 17 kilometres from Fotokol, another border village in northern Cameroon.
The militants died when Cameroon’s air force battalion bombarded a Boko Haram camp at that location. The report could not be independently verified.
Soldiers also launched rockets across the border at the Boko Haram stronghold of Banki in Nigeria on Friday.
The violence comes about a week after the Cameroonian army destroyed an Islamic school believed to have served as a training ground for Boko Haram.
An army officer told dpa on Monday that Boko Haram was recruiting children aged between 5 and 12 years and teaching them radical Islam at the school.
Cameroon has positioned soldiers and special military units to the Far North this year to stop Boko Haram from infiltrating into Cameroon from Nigeria. — Sapa
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter