Several people, including a soldier, were killed in weekend raids by a Boko Haram group in Cameroon’s Far North region, security and local sources said on Monday.
Militants of the group raided Kismatari village of the region on Sunday, killing three civilians, and then proceeded to attack Morgo locality of the region overnight into Monday, where they killed another civilian and wounded another, according to several security sources in the region.
On Saturday, the militants ambushed and killed a soldier of the Multinational Joint Task Force identified as Olivier Ngono.
The soldier was on board a motorcycle when the militants, hiding in the bush in a place called Gogolom, opened fire, killing him and the motorcycle rider, an official in the region told Xinhua but asked not to be named.
The Boko Haram group has stepped up attacks on civilians and security personnel in the region during the last one week, according to security reports.
At least three separatist fighters were killed when they launched offensives against military camps in Oku, a subdivision in Cameroon’s war-torn English-speaking region of Northwest, locals and security sources confirmed on Monday.
The attack on Sunday was led by a separatist commander who calls himself “No Pity”, a senior army official in the region who asked not to be named told Xinhua.
Heavily armed separatist fighters attacked the camps in the locality on several fronts during the day-long battle, but were later repelled by soldiers who killed three of them and dumped the bodies in a public place, the official said.
“No pity” himself, a key commander of the separatist movement in Cameroon who has ambushed and killed several soldiers, was wounded during the attack but he succeeded to escape, the official said.
It was the second time in less than two weeks that the separatist commander has unsuccessfully launched attacks against government forces in the region, according to security reports.
Cameroon’s Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest have been ravaged by a five-year armed separatist conflict after separatists declared the “independence” of the regions in 2017. -Xinhua
