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03.08.2020 Europe

16 killed in suspected Boko Haram attack in Cameroon’s Far North

03.08.2020 LISTEN
By RFI

A grenade attack launched early Sunday morning at a displaced person's camp in the Far North region of Cameroon killed 16 people and wounded seven, according to local officials.

“It's obvious that Boko Haram is responsible,” Mahamat Chetima Abba, the mayor of Mayo-Moskota, where Nguetchewe camp is located, told AFP newswire.

The town has an informal camp of about 800 people where many have fled the violence from Islamist group Boko Haram. Mayo-Moskota is near the Nigerian border.

Reports indicate that the attackers arrived with a woman, who was holding the grenade.

The Extreme North region had been calm for a few weeks, according to Abba, so the attack was a surprise, he said.

Boko Haram is a Nigerian separatist group that is trying to create their own Islamist caliphate in the country. Fighting does spill into countries bordering Nigeria, however, including Cameroon, Niger, and Chad.

Some 30,000 people have died, while millions have been displaced due to the violence.

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