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Witnesses Report Boko Haram Attacks in Cameroon, Nigeria


Map of Cameroon
Map of Cameroon

Witnesses in northern Cameroon said Saturday that at least 11 people had died in a Boko Haram attack on a bus near the border with Nigeria.

The attack reportedly took place late Thursday in the region of Waza, where militants opened fire on a bus full of passengers.

Government authorities have not commented on the attack, but a local military officer told the Reuters news service that as many as 25 people might have been killed, and that 10 people who were injured were taken to a hospital in the regional capital, Maroua.

Word of such attacks is often slow to emerge, because communications networks in the area have been destroyed. Reuters said the attack had been confirmed by travelers from the area arriving in Maroua.

Northern Cameroon has seen the worst of the spillover from Boko Haram violence in neighboring Nigeria.

Witnesses in northeastern Nigeria said Boko Haram militants kidnapped about 40 boys and young men from the remote village of Malari, Borno state, on Wednesday. Lack of a telecommunications infrastructure there also impedes reporting of such incidents.

Witnesses arriving in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, said the militants stormed the village and took a group of young people, the oldest believed to be age 23. The witnesses said they fled the village after the attack.

Boko Haram has been blamed for thousands of deaths during its five-year insurgency in Nigeria.

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