Boko Haram suicide attack kills 11
A suicide bomb blast has killed 11 people
in the Far North region, the regional Governor said Thursday, warning civilians
not to breach special security measures aimed at preventing such attacks.
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 suicide 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 club when the attacker entered and triggered his
explosives," the security source said.
MidjiyawaBakari,
the governor of the region, told AFP that 11 people had died and four had been
severely 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.
Total disregard for human life
Amnesty
International's West and Central Africa director Alioune Tine said the
"horrific suicide bombing... demonstrates once again Boko Haram's total
disregard for human life".
"The
Cameroonian security forces should take all lawful and necessary measures to
protect civilians from such attacks, while ensuring respect for human
rights," he added.
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 fight back 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.
Silent 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.
NajatRochdi
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 $280 million (248-million-euro) 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