Villagers in southern Cameroon say armed men crossed the border from Nigeria and killed at least seven government soldiers and displaced civilians from about 15 villages. Civilians say they believe the attackers are members of a terrorist group.
Villagers in Akwaya district, on Cameroon’s border with Nigeria’s Taraba state, say several hundred armed men crossed the Moon River twice this week and launched deadly attacks on their villages.
The Moon River is located in the south on Cameroon’s border with Nigeria. Villagers say that the water level has dropped significantly in this dry season, making it easier to cross on foot.
Villagers say the first attack occurred on Thursday, when armed men, suspected to be ethnic Fulani from Nigeria, entered their villages and began firing indiscriminately into the air, setting houses on fire and threatening to kill civilians. Gave.
Cameroon’s army says it responded and the attackers retreated, killing several fighters.
Abducted Linus Tarnong, the traditional ruler of Bakinjaw village in Akwaya district, said villagers were surprised to find the men returned on Friday more heavily armed than on Thursday.
“Due to the gun fire, some of those armed Fulani suffered casualties, and then the remaining retreated and came back with heavy casualties [number of fighters]And with more sophisticated rifles,” Tarnong told VOA by phone from Akweya. “They attacked us [Cameroon] “The troops that remained at the chief’s palace in Bakinjaw, and killed five military and two gendarmes.”
The Cameroon army said it lost five soldiers during the confrontation. Villagers say that two government soldiers were injured and died while being taken to the hospital for treatment.
The Cameroon army says several civilians were injured, and it is too early to determine whether some villagers have died due to difficult access to Akwaya.
Aka Martin Tyoga, a lawmaker and member of Cameroon’s National Assembly from Akwa, said this week’s attacks are the latest in a series of attempts by Nigerian terrorist groups to seize that area of Cameroon.
“We have asked people to move away from the border area to the centre, where our forces are present,” Tyoga said. “We are requesting that the government should send more forces [military] because these people [armed men] Come en masse; They came in numbers of 300. Their way of working is like Boko Haram. They enter the community and start killing people, burning houses.”
No group has claimed responsibility, but Cameroonian government officials and Akweya residents believe that a Nigerian terrorist group wants to take over the area. Cameroonian officials said troops had been deployed to the border with Nigeria around Akweya for search and rescue operations, but they did not say how many troops had been deployed.
The Cameroon government says it is working with Nigerian authorities to prevent attacks along the border, but gave no details. VOA could not independently verify whether Cameroon has contacted Nigerian authorities to investigate the armed group’s origins or cooperate with the neighboring state’s forces to fight suspected militants.
Nigeria has been attempting to stem the spread of terrorist groups across its territory since 2009, when fighting between Nigerian government troops and Boko Haram militants escalated into an armed conflict and spread to Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Since 2022, there have been several bombings and deadly attacks in Nigeria’s Taraba state that were claimed by the Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP. In 2021, Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger stated that ISWAP was emerging as a terrorist group taking over power from Boko Haram, which had been weakened by the death of its leader Abubakar Shekau in May that year.