Douala - Suspected Boko Haram
militants killed at least 11 people and kidnapped eight others
in an overnight raid on a village in northern Cameroon near the
Nigerian border, officials said on Friday.
The attackers burned down around 30 houses in Gakara
village, just outside the town of Kolofata, which has been a
frequent target of suicide bombings by the Islamist group.
An army colonel put the death toll at 11, while a district
official said that 15 people had been killed. The mayor of
Kolofata confirmed that an attack had taken place but said he
did not know the death toll.
Boko Haram attacks have killed more than 20,000 people and
displaced 2.7 million during the group's eight-year insurgency
to carve out an Islamic caliphate in the Lake Chad region.
"The attack happened around midnight. The Boko Haram
assailants arrived. They set 32 houses on fire... killed,
pillaged, and traumatised the population," said the district
official, who asked not to be named because he was not
authorised to speak.
Many people fled the village for a camp near Kolofata that
houses thousands displaced by Boko Haram violence, he said.