Boko Haram terror group seems to have returned in full force with an attack in Nigeria on July 8 that killed six and in Cameroon on June 30 that left at least 15 people dead as well as another attack also in Cameroon on June 29 that killed 11 in addition to several other attacks in both countries almost on a daily basis that have left many dead. In all, over 50 people have been killed in the past two weeks alone in Nigeria and Cameroon by Boko Haram.
Two days ago, on Friday, the Nigerian military said a suicide bomber detonated inside a mosque in the country’s northeast, killing six worshippers and himself.
An army spokesman, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, said in a statement that two bombers first tried the larger Damboa Central Mosque but failed.
While one bomber detonated and killed only himself near the Damboa Central Mosque, the other bomber entered a smaller mosque and killed six people.
Eight days earlier on June 30, two suicide bombers killed at least 15 people at a video club and mosque near Cameroon’s border with Nigeria
The Associated Press quoted Midjiyawa Bakary, governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, as saying that at least 50 people were wounded in that attack.
In just one year, since July 2015, Boko Haram has killed at least 480 civilians in Cameroon, said Amnesty International. More than 1300 have been killed in Cameroon since 2013 in over 200 attacks, including 40 suicide bombings.
A day before the June 30 attack in Cameroon, on Wednesday June 29, a suicide bombing by a young boy in the town of Limani in Cameroon’s far nor the killed at least 11 people, Amnesty International said.
“This horrific suicide bombing is just the latest in a series of attacks against civilians and demonstrates once again Boko Haram’s total disregard for human life. It illustrates the threat posed by Boko Haram in the Far North of Cameroon and across the Lake Chad region,” said Alioune Tine, the group’s regional director for West and Central Africa.
Last Tuesday as reported by the Associated Press, Nigerian soldiers thwarted an attack by three female suicide bombers from the Boko Haram extremist group, fatally shooting two as they tried to detonate their explosives near people who have fled their homes because of fighting.
Two civilians were injured in that attack on the outskirts of Monguno town in northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram is active, army Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman said in a statement.
Only last night, Boko Haram terrorists attacked a village in Cameroon’s far north and killed at least three civilians, days after killing five persons and kidnapping 11 others in the same region, a newspaper said on Sunday, a reminder that the war against the ruthless terrorists who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in March last year is far from over.
Local newspaper, L’Oeil du Sahel, known to reliably report Boko Haram attacks in Cameroon, said the terrorists stormed a locality called Aldjé, not far from Amchidé in Cameroon’s far north, and killed three persons.
On Thursday night, an attack around the locality of Goulouzivini about 10 kilometres from the famous park of Waza left two civilians dead. The same night, two farmers; Moussa Dawa and Oumar Kolo, were killed at Manawatchi in Kolofata also in Cameroon’s far north by Boko Haram invaders who came from the Nigerian side of the border.
On July 4, Blama Made, a trader was killed by Boko Haram at Bornori in Kolofata, following an attack by Boko Haram. At least 11 persons were left missing.
Two Saturdays ago, four brave fishermen subdued two Boko Haram members at Darak in the Lake Chad, one of the attackers armed with an AK47 rifle.
These attacks have multiplied in recent weeks, and even though large scale bombings Boko Haram used to stage have dwindled in recent months, many people continue to be killed by a group spreading terror in the region and vowing to create a caliphate around Lake Chad Basin.
In neighbouring Nigeria, a suicide bomber last week killed at least six worshippers at a mosque and five soldiers were wounded while two civilians were killed by the terrorists in another attack two days ago on Friday. The Associated Press reported that the two civilians the Nigerian Army described as a truck driver and a gunner were also soldiers.
Boko Haram has killed more than 1300 people in Cameroon since 2013 and over 25,000 in Nigeria since 2009. More two million people remain displaced and hundreds of Chibok girls kidnapped two years ago in an attack that shocked the world have not been found.
A multinational task force made up of troops from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin, has taken the fight to the militants, but it is not clear how successful they have been.