DAKAR (Reuters) – At least seven people were killed and 14 others wounded in suicide bomb attack in a village hosting internally displaced people in Cameroon’s Far North region, the second of such attack in a month, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.
The attack on Tuesday took place in Goldavi, close to the border with Nigeria, where some 18,000 people fleeing the violent insurgency, had sought refuge.
“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 UN agency said the recent attacks follow a significant rise in violent incidents in Cameroon’s Far North Region, including looting and kidnapping by Boko Haram and other armed groups active in the region.
A spokesman for Cameroon’s government was not immediately available to comment.
Suspected militants from Islamist group Boko Haram killed at least 18 people and wounded seven early last month in a grenade attack on a camp for displaced people in northern Cameroon.
The UNHCR said that an estimated 7,000 Cameroonian villagers near the border with Nigeria have fled their homes since 11 August, seeking safety in neighbouring areas.
“The displaced population has been targeted in relentless attacks, forcing them to flee,” it said, adding that the decade-long Boko Haram insurgency has killed over 30,000 in the Lake Chad Basin, and forced over three million to flee their homes.
(Writing by Bate Felix; editing by Barbara Lewis)
