Boko Haram
- Details
- Boko Haram
Three civilians were killed in Cameroon's Far North when a vigilante tried to stop a suicide bomber whose explosive device detonated, regional and security sources said on Thursday.
The incident took place on Wednesday evening in Djakana, a village near the border with northeastern Nigeria, stronghold of the Islamist group which last year pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
A source close to the regional authorities told AFP that, including the bomber, there were "four dead and a number of wounded, one of whom was in critical condition."
The toll was confirmed by a security official.
The source said the bomber had been planning to detonate his explosives in the nearby town of Mora on Thursday, which is market day, but his plans were thwarted in Djakana where he was planning to spend the night.
"He was spotted by a member of Djakana's vigilance committee who tried to neutralise him" which caused the explosion, she said, indicating that the man who tried to stop him was among the dead.
Djakana, which lies just a few kilometres (miles) from the Nigerian border, has been hit by a number of attacks, including one on June 30 in which 11 people were killed.
Another three civilians were killed and 20 others wounded in another suicide bombing in Mora on August 21.
Mora is home to the headquarters of a multi-national force fighting Boko Haram, which groups troops from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger.
Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has killed at least 20,000 people in Nigeria and border areas of neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
It has also left more than 2.8 million homeless, fleeing attacks by militants who have ransacked villages across the poverty-stricken region.
- Details
- Rita Akana
- Hits: 3067
- Details
- Boko Haram
At least eight people were killed in an attack on a church by suspected members of Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria on Sunday, local residents said on Monday.
The attack was carried out shortly after the morning service in Kwamjilari village, just about 30 kilometers east of Chibok town in Borno state.
The armed attackers were riding on bicycles.
“Some of the worshippers remained around the church and the gunmen opened fire and eight men died,” AFP reports Luka Damina to say from nearby Kautikeri village, where locals fled.
“Unknown to the residents, the gunmen had stationed some of their comrades on the road leading out of the village and they shot anyone who tried to flee.
“Many people ran into the bush with gunshot wounds. But so far we can only confirm eight deaths.”
The attackers also set homes on fire as well as maize farms that were almost ready for harvest.
A similar attack in the area last month left 10 people dead and saw 13 others kidnapped, while homes were looted and set on fire.
- Details
- Rita Akana
- Hits: 1526
- Details
- Boko Haram
"Boko Haram butchered nine people in front of me. That day I decided to leave my village," says Rachel Daviguidam, still devastated by the carnage she witnessed in September 2015.
One year on and this 30-year-old Cameroonian is still unable to get the images out of her mind.
And this mother of seven cannot see herself returning to her village of Golvadi in Cameroon's Far North, an area that has suffered multiple attacks by Boko Haram jihadists based just across the border in Nigeria.
Over the past year, Daviguidam and her husband and children have been living in Koza, a small town surrounded by mountains about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Maroua, capital of the Far North region.
Around 200,000 Cameroonians from the region have fled their villages in fear of the violence carried out by militants from Boko Haram, who last year pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Jihadists in this region kill, they torch entire villages, they loot and they steal livestock.
Sitting on the ground in Koza's stadium, this young mother cradles her youngest, who is just three months old, occasionally breastfeeding him.
Around her sit other displaced families.
- 'Life became intolerable' -
Nearby, hundreds of people are waiting in line to receive food handouts from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Over the past 15 months, the ICRC has organised food deliveries in Koza in a bid to combat malnutrition, says Ibrahim Dit Falke, a local who works for the organisation.
"Each household receives a package of 50 kilos (110 pounds) of rice, 25 kilos of maize flour, 25 kilos of black-eyed peas, 10 litres (20 pints) of oil, a kilo of salt and 12 kilos of enriched flour," he says.
In this area where many of the displaced have gathered, there have been numerous cases of malnutrition, some of them severe.
"We are in an area dominated by farming and agriculture, where most households make their living through agriculture," Dit Falke says.
"When you cut a household off from its fields, you cut it off from its livelihood."
As the food is handed out, Daviguidam, who comes from a Christian family, recounts her story.
"Life there became intolerable," she says.
"For three months, they would come to my house and flog me and my children," she explains.
"They said we were pagans.
"They demanded that we convert to Islam but we didn't want to."
If at the start, the Nigerian jihadists were only targeting Christians, they soon stopped making any distinction between Christians and Muslims, she says, as she gets up to go and collect her food package from a Red Cross volunteer.
- 'I can't cope' -
"I am happy to receive this gift," smiles another woman, Veved Nadama carrying a sack of rice on her head, as two other women help her carry the rest of the supplies.
For the past two years, this 25-year-old has lived in Koza since she fled the border town of Kerawa, which is home to 50,000 people and has been regularly targeted by Boko Haram.
"When they killed two pupils in the village, my husband and I decided to leave," says the mother of two.
"There was shooting all the time. We weren't able to sleep in our home, we preferred to hide in the bush."
Another of the displaced, Yauba Sumbi, says he's grateful for the sense of security in Koza, but like many others, he is haunted by what he witnessed.
"I am traumatised. I saw dead people, people with their throats cut," he says.
"I can't cope anymore."
He fled the border town of Amchide in 2014 with his wife but only two of his children.
"On the day we left, our neighbourhood was stormed by Boko Haram and there was shooting. We walked for three days and three nights through the bush" to reach Koza.
While part of the family managed to escape, he has had no news about his five other children who were unable to get out.
"I don't know if they are alive or dead, if they are in Nigeria or Cameroon," he says.
"God only knows."
France24
- Details
- Rita Akana
- Hits: 1684
- Details
- Boko Haram
Islamist militant group Boko Haram this week suffered after thirty eight of its fighters were killed during military search operations carried out by Niger and Chad troops in the Diffa region of southeast Niger, an official said on Friday.
Two soldiers were lightly wounded in the action and “on the enemy side; 38 terrorists killed,” Niger defence ministry spokesperson Moustapha Ledru said on state television.
Substantial quantities of weapons and munitions were also seized, Colonel Ledru added.
The joint army operations took place between Monday and Wednesday around the villages of Gueskerou and Toumour in southeastern Niger, he added.
According to villagers and NGO workers in Gueskerou, 30km from Diffa, Boko Haram elements attacked the town on Wednesday night, without killing anyone.
“The attack nonetheless caused a psychosis in the population” and “the assailants torched houses and stole food and medicines after pillaging shops and a pharmacy,” an NGO official told AFP.
The militant group’s insurgency has left at least 20000 people dead in Nigeria and border areas of neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
- Details
- Rita Akana
- Hits: 2917
- Details
- Boko Haram
During a ceremony to hand over attestations to successful candidates at the Command for Gendarmerie School in Yaoundé, the representative of the grandaunts said they are physically and psychologically armed to efficiently contribute in the fight against insecurity particularly within the current context when the country is faced by multiple security challenges.
The Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Jean Baptiste Bokam said the training comes at a time when the new penal code; the operational guide for gendarmes has been promulgated.
He added that the projection of two formed Police Units to the Central African Republic for a peace keeping assignment as part of the United Nations Integrated Stabilisation Mission, MINUSCA should serve as an eye opener for the future sub officers who will be evaluated on the field.
The grandaunts he noted will be evaluated in their respective stations based on their ability to draw up accident reports, carry out judicial investigations with a mastery of the legal proceedings and their capacity to command combat and law enforcement units.
They were also reminded to keep professional secrets and be of good morals in a bid to better preserve national unity and integrity and protect Cameroonians and their property.
- Details
- Rita Akana
- Hits: 2550
- Details
- Boko Haram
Authorities in the Far North Region have shut down the biggest cattle market in the region because suspected Boko Haram militants are seen trading stolen livestock to finance weapons and food.
The closing of Meme in Mayo-Sava, where a double bombing in February killed 24 people, came as authorities believe the Islamist group is poised to resume attacks in the region, Governor Midjiyawa Bakari said by phone on Monday. Four people were killed and two seriously injured on Aug. 21 after a suspected militant detonated explosives outside the main market in the town of Mora.
“They have established a cattle-theft and sales network in the area which we must urgently dismantle,” Bakari said. “It’s obvious that the money generated from such sales is helping Boko Haram to buy food at the same market, and also guns from elsewhere.”
The Far North region witnessed at least 200 attacks, including nearly 40 bombings that killed at least 480 people since July 2015, Amnesty International said last month. The insurgents carried out the first such attack in Cameroon on July 12, 2015, in Fotokol, killing 13 civilians and two soldiers.
Cameroon’s defense force arrested 63 people during an overnight raid in Mora on Saturday, Bakari said. Most of those arrested were displaced persons without identification papers or people in possession of dangerous weapons, he said.
- Details
- Rita Akana
- Hits: 1571
