Eight killed in suspected Boko Haram raid in Cameroon

Yaounde, Aug 8 (IANS) Suspected Boko Haram fighters killed at least eight people and injured one in an overnight attack on Kangaleri village in the Mayo-Sava division of Cameroon’s Far North region, local sources said Saturday.

The sources said the attack occurred at around 11 p.m. local time Friday, when the gunmen entered the village under cover of darkness, a tactic the group frequently uses, before fleeing the area.

Six residents were killed at the scene, while three others were badly wounded and taken for treatment. Two of the injured later died in a hospital, and one remained under medical care as of Saturday.

Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact circumstances of the raid, Xinhua News Agency reported.

In a separate incident the same night, gunmen believed to be from Boko Haram were reported in Tourou, a town in the Mokolo district near the border with Nigeria. Local sources said the assailants looted shops and livestock and damaged a market on the outskirts of the town. No deaths were reported from that attack.

In July, one woman was killed, and four Cameroonian soldiers were injured in a Boko Haram attack on an army outpost in Cameroon’s Far North region.

The attack occurred at Tourou village in the Mokolo subdivision of the Mayo-Tsanaga department on the night of July 13.

An infant was also shot and seriously injured during the raid, a security source told Xinhua.

The attackers reportedly seized military equipment before withdrawing. The wounded soldiers and the infant were rushed to a regional hospital for treatment.

The attack came just hours after government troops repelled another Boko Haram assault in the same area, killing two militants and injuring several others.

The Boko Haram terror group has been carrying out attacks in Cameroon’s Far North region since 2014, inflicting heavy human and material losses across the region.

–IANS

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