Boko Haram kills 100 in Cameroon

…France sends military advisers to coordinate fight

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 has said.
The massacre comes amid a major regional offensive against
the militant group, which has kidnapped hundreds and killed
thousands in neighbouring northern Nigeria and has mounted
increasingly bloody cross-border raids.
Reports quoted the civic leader Abatchou Abatcha, as saying:
“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.”
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.
Meanwhile, a source close to the Niger government told
Reuters yesterday the parliament in Niamey would vote
Monday to send its troops to Nigeria. Meanwhile, France has
sent military advisers to Niger’s southern border with Nigeria
to help coordinate military action by regional powers fighting
the Islamist group Boko Haram, a French army official said
yesterday.
The deployment was announced as warplanes pounded Boko
Haram positions just over the border in Nigeria, a resident in
the Niger town of Bosso said, and hundreds of Chadian troops
massed at the frontier to prepare an attack.
A French army official told Reuters a detachment of about 10
military personnel had been stationed in Diffa at the request of
Niger, its former colony. “It is there to coordinate the armies
on the ground in the fight against Boko Haram,” the official
said.
Speaking at a news conference yesterday, President Francois
Hollande said Paris was also providing logistical and
operation support, including by delivering fuel and munitions
to countries fighting Boko Haram.
However, he said France could not be expected to get
involved in every crises around the world and accused other
major powers of inaction in Africa. “This is a message to the
international community and the biggest countries. Do your
work! Stop giving lessons and take action!” Hollande said. “In
Africa, we have to help the Africans a lot more to fight
terrorism, because if we do not then other countries will be
destabilised,” he warned.