Boko Haram kills 90 civilians and wounds 500 in Cameroonattacks

Boko Haram fighters have shot or burned to death about 90
civilians and wounded 500 in ongoing fighting in a border town
near Nigeria, officials in Cameroon have said.
Some 800 Islamic extremists attacking the town of Fotokol
“burned churches, mosques and villages and slaughtered youth
who resisted joining them to fight Cameroonian forces”, the
information minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakari, said on Thursday.
The Nigerian insurgents also looted livestock and food in the
fighting that began on Wednesday.
Boko Haram has been using civilians as shields, making it
difficult to confront them, although reinforcements have
arrived in Fotokol, according to a military spokesman.
Hundreds of insurgents were killed on Wednesday along with
13 Chadian and six Cameroonian troops, the defence minister,
Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo, said. At least 91 civilians have been
killed and most of the more than 500 who have been wounded
cannot be taken quickly to hospital, he said. There was no
way immediately to confirm the account independently.
The fighters are believed to have crossed into Cameroon from
nearby Gambaru, a Nigerian border town that had been an
extremist stronghold since November but that was retaken
this week. The fighters were driven out by Chadian and
Nigerian air strikes supported by Chadian ground troops.
African Union officials were finalising plans on Thursday for a
multinational force to fight the spreading Boko Haram
uprising, though there are questions about funding. Last week
the AU authorised a 7,500-strong force from Nigeria and its
four neighbours, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin.
Senior officers from the UN peacekeeping department were
attending the meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital, a UN
official said. The Africans want UN security council approval
and money to fund the mission, added the official, who spoke
on Wednesday at the UN and requested anonymity because he
was not authorised to speak to the press about the meeting.
President François Hollande said France was providing
support with weapons, logistics and operations for the
multinational effort. At a news conference in Paris, he stopped
short of saying whether France was involved in military action.
The country has a large air base at N’Djamena, the capital of
Chad, which will lead the multinational force.
International concern has grown as Boko Haram has increased
the tempo and ferocity of its attacks, just as Nigeria is
preparing for presidential and legislative elections on 14
February.
An estimated 10,000 people were killed in Boko Haram
violence last year compared with 2,000 in the first four years
of Nigeria’s Islamic uprising, according to the Council on
Foreign Relations.
( THE GUARDIAN)