At least six civilians were killed and over 30 injured Wednesday in a double suicide attack in Cameroon’s northern border region with Nigeria, which is regularly attacked by Boko Haram fighters, security sources said. The attackers, who were also killed, were both female, said a source.
“Six civilians were killed as well as two suicide bombers who blew themselves up” during a funeral wake in the village of Nguetchewe, a source told AFP, adding that between 30-50 people were injured. “The villagers were gathered for the wake when two suicide attackers joined them, pretending to be family members,” said the source. The two female bombers “blew themselves up at 6:20 am, just when people who had spent the night there were preparing for a meal.”
A police source in the region said several children, including a boy aged six and a 15-year-old, were among the victims. At least one member of a local committee set up in response to the upsurge in Islamic attacks was also killed. The most seriously injured were evacuated to a regional hospital in Maroua. It is the fifth suicide attack in Cameroon’s far north region since the start of the year.
On January 18 four people were killed in an attack at Nguetchewe’s mosque. Nearly 1,200 people have been killed since Nigerian Islamists began staging attacks in neighbouring Cameroon in 2013, according to government figures. Nguetchewe is a small village near the border with Nigeria where a French priest, Georges Vandenbeusch, was kidnapped in November 2013. He was held for 50 days before being released.
The kidnapping were blamed on Boko Haram, which has since sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group based in Syria and Iraq.
