More than 100 killed by Boko Haram in Cameroon

February 5, 2015 — ChristianToday.com reports: “Boko Haram fighters have killed more than 100 people in the north Cameroon town of Fotokol, murdering residents inside their homes and a mosque, a local civic leader said on Wednesday.

The massacre comes amid a major regional offensive against the Islamic group, which has kidnapped hundreds and killed thousands in neighbouring northern Nigeria and has mounted increasingly bloody cross-border raids.

‘Boko Haram entered Fotokol through Gambaru early in the morning and they killed more than 100 people in the mosque, in the houses and they burned property,’ said the civic leader Abatchou Abatcha, reached by telephone.

The militants shot and killed one of his sons during the raid, he added.

Many of the dead were found with their throats slit, according to Cameroon’s L’Oeil du Sahel newspaper.

Cameroon’s information minister Issa Tchiroma declined to comment on the massacre. He said the Cameroon army pushed Boko Haram out of the border town after heavy fighting, which killed 50 militants and six of its own soldiers…”

Boko Haram ‘Abducts’ 50 Children In Cameroon

January 19, 2015 — Sky News reports: “Suspected Boko Haram fighters have abducted up to 80 people, many of them children, in a deadly assault on villages in northern Cameroon, officials say.

‘According to our initial information, around 30 adults, most of them herders, and 50 young girls and boys aged between 10 and 15 years were abducted,’ a senior army officer deployed to northern Cameroon told news agency Reuters.

That would make it Boko Haram’s largest abduction in Cameroon to date.

Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary confirmed that three people were killed in the attack on Sunday, which targeted the village of Mabass and several others along the Nigerian border.

He said soldiers had intervened and exchanged fire with the assailants for around two hours…”

Boko Haram Displaces 1.6 Million Nigerians in Five Years

January 26, 2015 — Breitbart.com reports: “In the past five years, Boko Haram has forced over 1.6 million people to flee Nigeria — and, increasingly, border areas of Cameroon — due to numerous attacks intended to expand their ‘caliphate.’ The Muslim group recently attacked Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State and the largest city in the northeast…

After years of operating exclusively in Nigeria, Boko Haram has begun to target neighboring Cameroon. On January 20, over 10,000 Cameroonians fled inland away from the vulnerable border towns. Boko Haram attacked ‘at least two dozen villages and towns’ in January. Attacks caused ten schools in the area to close. A total of 140 schools in the country are closed.

For most of its history, Boko Haram has attacked only vulnerable small villages, but on January 25, the group attacked Maiduguri as Secretary of State John Kerry is in Lagos to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan. Over 200 fighters died in the attack. Militants also violated small villages around the capital. Survivors claim the terrorists attacked towns 125 miles south of Maiduguri, ‘slitting throats of residents, looting and burning homes and abducting dozens of trapped women and children.’ The militants captured Monguno, 80 miles north of Maiduguri.

‘Monguno has fallen, Monguno has fallen,’ a senior military official told the media. ‘We fought them all night long but they took over the town, including the military barracks there.’…”

Boko Haram Close in on Regional Capital, Two Million Under Threat

January 30, 2015 — Breitbart.com reports: “Boko Haram jihadists have reportedly closed in on the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, which has an estimated population of two million, along with another 200,000 who are currently taking refuge within its borders.

Residents have said that the Boko Haram terrorists warned them that they are readying ‘a big grave’ for Maiduguri’s residents and that ‘there will be no mercy.’

A local resident told the CBC regarding Boko Haram, ‘They kept saying they were chasing us so that we can all run into the big grave they are preparing for us in Maiduguri.’

Residents are said to be too afraid to leave the city, but also fearful that the militants may imminently launch an offensive into Maiduguri.

Two local state legislators, Adamu Kamale and Emmanuel Kwache, have begged the Nigerian military to send troops into the area to protect its residents. ‘They don’t spare anything: they slaughter people like rams and they burned down our houses after looting food,’ said Kwache. ‘There’s no presence of troops, some residents are hiding on top of hills, while those that could not run were abducted, particularly youths and women,’ he added…”