Deadly jihadist attack Cameroon village hosting displaced people, kills 7

Seven civilians were killed on Tuesday, September 1, after a suicide bomber attacked a village housing displaced people in Cameroon’s northern tip bordering Nigeria, the United Nations and a police official said.

The police officer said the bombing followed a Boko Haram raid on a village, adding: “The people fled and a young man strapped with explosives chased them and blew himself up.”

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it “firmly condemns this attack which killed seven civilians and wounded 14 others in Kouyape village.

“The suicide bomb attack took place near Kolofata, close to the border with Nigeria, where some 18,000 internally displaced people have sought safety over the past seven years,” the refugee agency said.

The jihadist group first launched its insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, before extending its deadly operations to neighbouring Cameroon, Niger, and Chad.

The group has killed more than 30,000 people, forcing three million to flee their homes, according to the UN.

“We are horrified by these senseless attacks on people who have been torn from their villages, fleeing violence perpetrated by armed gangs which rage in the region, only to be stripped of safety again after they just found refuge elsewhere,” said Olivier Guillaume Beer, UNHCR Representative in Cameroon.

“The killing of innocent civilians has to stop,” he said. “We call on armed groups to respect the rights and lives of civilian populations.”

The attack comes a month after 18 people died and 15 were injured by an armed group on the Nguetchewe IDP site. Two young suicide bombers were involved in the attacks, according to officials.