 |
A wounded woman is
evacuated by rescuers in Mora, Cameroon, following suicide attacks in the
border city of Kerawa, in January 2016
|
A suicide
bombing by a Boko Haram jihadist has killed 11 people in northern Cameroon, a
provincial governor said Thursday, warning civilians not to breach special
security measures aimed at preventing such attacks.
AFP report continues:
It was the latest in a
spate of raids blamed on the Nigeria-based Islamist militant group in the area,
which have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes.
A security source said
the attacker blew himself up in the town of Djakana near the Nigerian border
overnight.
"Seven people were
killed immediately, including the bomber," the source said, adding that
most of the victims were members of a local vigilante group tasked with hunting
down Boko Haram fighters.
"They were gathered
in a video room when the attacker entered and triggered his explosives,"
the security source said.
Midjiyawa Bakari, the
governor of the region, told AFP that 11 people had died and four had been
wounded.
Bakari slammed "the
imprudence of the youths running the video club," adding: "While such
activities are forbidden, they take risks in showing films at night in the
bush...
"We are asking on
the local population to wait until we give the go-ahead for the resumption of
such activities, especially on the frontline," he said, referring to
security measures put in place in the area in the wake of Boko Haram raids.
Boko Haram's seven-year
insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and border areas of
neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
Some 2,000 Chadian
soldiers are set to launch a counter-offensive against the group in the region,
as part of a fightback by the four countries targeted by the group.
Boko Haram has regularly
used women and children to stage suicide bombings, targeting mosques, markets,
bus stations and checkpoints.
But the overnight attack
comes after a lull in violence in this border zone near Nigeria.
-
Humanitarian crisis -
The UN humanitarian
coordinator for Cameroon warned this month that unabated attacks by the
jihadists had sparked food insecurity and driven 190,000 people from their
homes thereby creating a fertile ground for recruitment by Boko Haram.
Najat Rochdi had told AFP
in an interview that Boko Haram members were attacking villages and food supply
routes as well as burning homes and fields across northern Cameroon on a daily
basis.
She said that in the last
six months alone, the number of Cameroonians displaced within their own country
had jumped from 60,000 to 190,000.
In addition, Cameroon is
hosting 60,000 refugees from Nigeria and another 312,000 from the Central
African Republic, amounting to more than 500,000 displaced people in all.
The number at risk of
going hungry has soared from 900,000 to 2.4 million since January.
"It is a kind of
silent crisis, which is really the danger," Rochdi said, warning that if
humanitarian needs are not addressed in Cameroon, "we will see a
radicalisation" of young people in the country.
"If people are not
left with some hope, the only alternative for them is Boko Haram," she cautioned.
There is a gaping
budgetary gap with only 30 percent of the requested US$280 million (€248 million)
humanitarian aid budget for Cameroon this year funded so far.
According to the UN, some
250 children recruited or abducted by Boko Haram in Cameroon have meanwhile
managed to escape over the past nine months, according to the UN.
Some
of them were girls who had been raped daily.
No comments:
Post a Comment