New Year’s Day was one of
the worst days for some as more than 15 people were killed on Thursday, January
1st 2015, when suspected Boko Haram militants attacked a bus in northern Cameroon.
According to Leadership
report, the senior officer said he feared the death toll would rise.
A senior officer in the
military’s BIR rapid reaction unit deployed in the region who pleaded anonymity
said: “Boko Haram elements on Thursday attacked a bus that was transporting
many passengers from Kousseri to Maroua and killed 25 persons on the spot.”
He added that said another
10 people had been severely injured and taken to Maroua hospital.
Foncha Ngeh, a local
businessman who is based in Maroua, said travelers who reached the town of
Maroua had confirmed the incident.
He said they told him there
were at least 15 dead in the incident but many more had been injured and were
being transported to Maroua for treatment.
He explained that there had
been a string of other attacks in the region, carried out by Islamists but also
ordinary bandits targeting people traveling during the holidays with lots of
cash.
However, Cameroonian
authorities were not available for comment on the attack
Over the last year, Boko
Haram, which has killed thousands in its struggle to create a caliphate in
northern Nigeria, has stepped up attacks on both sides of the border, forcing
Cameroon to dispatch thousands of troops to its north.
They were said to have
recruited hundreds of youths during raids in Cameroon’s Far North region this
year. Recently, a camp where children aged between 8 and 15 years were being
trained as soldiers was demolished by State gendarmes in Cameroon.
No fewer than 41 Boko Haram
insurgents were killed by Cameroon’s army along the country’s border with
Nigeria about a week ago.
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