Boko Haram attacks on rise
Print Edition
SUSPECTED rebels from Nigeria’s Islamist militant group Boko Haram attacked a camp occupied by a Chinese firm near the town of Waza in northern Cameroon, a local official said yesterday.
Waza is about 20 kilometers from the Nigerian border close to the Sambisa forest, a stronghold of Boko Haram which has killed thousands in Nigeria in a five-year insurgency for an Islamist state and threatens to destabilize the wider region.
The vast Sambisa forest is also close to where Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls last month.
Augustine Fonka Awa, the governor of Far North province, confirmed the attack but declined to give details.
Chinese embassy officials said unidentified assailants attacked the camp of a Chinese company operating in Cameroon on Friday night, injuring a young man and leaving 10 other people missing. The young man was wounded by bullets in his shoulder and the abdomen.
No organization has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The camp of the Cameroon subsidiary of China’s Sinohydro Bureau 16 in the far north was attacked by an armed group,” embassy political counselor Lu Qingjiang said.
“A Chinese employee was injured and 10 others are missing. The armed attackers also took 10 vehicles owned by the Chinese company. The wounded person has been evacuated to Chad,” she said.
“We have contacted the Cameroonian authorities, demanding they take effective measures to locate our compatriots and guarantee the safety of all other Chinese nationals in that region.”
The subsidiary of Sinohydro, a leading international contractor in the power and infrastructure sectors, is working on a road improvement project on the Cameroon-Nigeria border, a region marked by increasing insecurity in recent years.
Boko Haram has staged several attacks in north Cameroon.
Last week, at least two people were killed when a heavily armed group attacked a police station in Kousseri in northern Cameroon. Speculation centered on Boko Haram, but the Cameroon government said it involved an unidentified group and was awaiting final results of an investigation.
Last month two Italian priests and a Canadian were abducted from their residences in the region, while in February 2013, a French family were kidnapped in the area and taken to Nigeria, where they were held for two months before being released.
Last November, a group of armed men from Nigeria kidnapped French priest Georges Vandenbeusch, who was also later released.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for several of the kidnappings.
West African leaders meet in Paris yesterday to try to improve cooperation in their fight against the group.
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