Boko Haram fighters kidnap around 80 in deadly Cameroon attack

Suspected Boko Haram Islamist fighters from Nigeria kidnapped around 80 people, many of them children, and killed three others on Sunday in a cross-border attack on villages in northern Cameroon, army and government officials said. The group, which has killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds in its bid to carve out an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has also targeted Cameroon and Niger over the past year as it seeks to expand its zone of operations. Sunday’s kidnappings, among the largest abductions on Cameroonian soil, came as neighbouring Chad deployed troops to support Cameroon’s forces in the area.

…Around 30 adults, most of them herders, and 50 young girls and boys aged between 10 and 15 years were abducted.

a senior army officer deployed to northern Cameroon told Reuters

In an attack that gained worldwide attention last year, Boko Haram fighters kidnapped around 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, in northeastern Nigeria. It has stepped up attacks in the region as Africa’s biggest economy prepares for a Feb. 14 presidential election. In a video posted online this month, a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau threatened to step up violence in neighbouring Cameroon unless it scraps its constitution and embraces Islam. A convoy of troops from Chad arrived in Maroua, the main town in Cameroon’s Far-North Region, to support the fight against Boko Haram, late on Saturday, Cameroon defence ministry spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck said on Sunday.

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