Boko Haram Gunmen Kill Chinese Worker, Soldier in Cameroon
Adetokunbo Fakeye with agency report
Nigerian deadly sect Boko Haram has attacked Waza, in Cameroon’s Far North Region, kidnapping 10 Chinese engineers and killing one Cameroonian soldier.
French news agency, AFP reported that a Chinese worker was also killed by the gunmen.
The attack came shortly before the start of Saturday’s summit talks on Boko Haram in Paris, where five heads of state are meeting to map out strategies to fight the militant group.
According to the report, an estimated 200 Boko Haram members attacked the Cameroonian locality of Waza, located only 15 kilometers from Nigeria’s Borno State, the base of the violent Islamist group. Djibrilla Toukour, a Waza resident, told VOA that men arrived in a convoy of about 15 vehicles around midnight.
“Boko Haram came to our area and started shooting just anyhow,” Toukour said.
The attackers killed a Cameroonian soldier near a camp where Chinese road construction engineers live, and took their vehicles. Toukour says authorities have not been able to locate the 10 Chinese, suggesting that they were kidnapped by Boko Haram.
Cameroonian soldiers have been deployed to the area. The governor of Far North Region, Fonka Awah Augustine, says it is very likely that some of the attackers are still on Cameroonian territory because the military was immediately deployed to the border with Nigeria to prevent their escape.
“There are quite a number of arrests that have been carried out. Investigations are on,” he said, adding that reinforcements have been requested from Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.
“Authorities in Yaounde are all looking towards the Far North Region to ensure that things are stabilized, and that Boko Haram that is looking for a safe ground does not find one,” he said.
Waza is within Cameroon’s Waza National Park, a major tourist attraction, where a French family of seven was kidnapped last year.
Earlier this month, Boko Haram attacked a military post 60 kilometers from Waza, freeing one of their group detained there and killing a Cameroonian soldier. They also left with ammunition.
