Villagers in southern Cameroon say armed men crossed the border from Nigeria and killed at least seven government troops and displaced civilians from about 15 villages. Civilians say they believe the attackers are members of a militant group.
Villagers in the Akwaya district on Cameroon’s border with Nigeria’s Taraba state say several hundred armed men crossed the Moon River two times this week and launched deadly attacks on their villages.
The Moon River lies to the south on Cameroon’s border with Nigeria. Villagers say the water level has dropped significantly this dry season, making it easy to cross by foot.
The villagers say the first attack was on Thursday, when armed men suspected to be ethnic Fulani from Nigeria entered their villages and started shooting indiscriminately in the air, torching houses and threatening to kill civilians.
Cameroon’s military says that it fought back and that the attackers retreated after several fighters were killed.
Agwa Linus Tarnonge, traditional ruler of Bakinjaw village in Akwaya district, said villagers were surprised that the men returned on Friday, more heavily armed than they were on Thursday.
“In the cause of gun fire exchanges, some of those armed Fulani suffered casualties, and then the remaining ones retreated and came back with an overwhelming population [number of fighters], and with more sophisticated rifles,” Tarnonge told VOA by phone from Akwaya. “They attacked our [Cameroon] military contingent that is lodged at the chief’s palace in Bakinjaw, and killed five military and two gendarmes.”
The Cameroon military said it lost five troops during the confrontation. Villagers say two government troops sustained injuries and died while being rushed to a hospital for treatment.
Many civilians were injured, and it is too early to determine if some villagers died because of the difficult access to Akwaya, the Cameroon military says.
Aka Martin Tyoga, a lawmaker and member of Cameroon’s National Assembly from Akwaya, said this week’s attacks are the latest in a series of what he called attempts by Nigerian militant groups to seize that area of Cameroon. VOA