Cameroon: 12 soldiers dead after Islamic militants attack border
At least 12 Cameroonian soldiers have been killed in an attack by Islamic militants on the country’s border with Nigeria.
According to AfricaNews on March 27th, the Cameroonian Ministry of Defence reported that over a dozen soldiers were left injured by the fighting.
The Ministry also said that the attack happened in the Lake Chad area near the town of Wulgo.
Although no group was blamed for the attack straight away, officials later said they suspected it to have been carried out by extremists from the Boko Haram group or the groups breakaway faction that is loyal to Islamic State.
Boko Haram militants have “advanced weaponry they increasingly have at their disposal”, said the Ministry citing the groups “apparent alliance with powerful transnational criminal entities” as contributing factors to the attack on March 24th.
Boko Haram which formed in Nigeria, took up arms in 2009 , fighting against Western education and to impose their radical version of Islamic law in the country. The conflict has since spilled over into Nigeria’s neighbors; Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
During the conflict, around 35,000 civilians have been killed, whilst almost 2 million have been displaced in northeastern Nigeria alone.
Additionally, the 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Borno state brought international attention to the conflict.
As well as this, in January 40 people were killed in an attack by Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Earlier in March, the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) dubbed the Sahel region as the global centre of terrorism.
AfricaNews, Maghrebi, Mindef.gov
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