Six killed in Cameroon suicide bombings

Four suicide bombers blew themselves up in northern Cameroon, killing at least six people and injuring about 12 others, a Cameroonian military spokesman said.

The Nigeria-based terror group Boko Haram is suspected of having been behind the attack in the town of Fotokol, Cameroon. The city has been a frequent target, and in January, Boko Haram militants slaughtered more than 400 people in door-to-door gun and knife attacks in the town, residents said.

The attack is the latest of many the Islamist militant group has mounted in Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria this year. The UN refugee agency said last month the attacks were turning the border region near Lake Chad into a warzone.

“The first suicide bomber detonated his bomb in the house of the traditional chief of Leymarie. Five people died including the bomber,” said a senior Cameroonian military official who declined to be named.

“Several minutes later, three female bombers exploded their bombs close to the initial site but they didn’t kill anyone else because they acted too quickly,” the official said, adding that around a dozen people were also wounded.

Boko Haram has waged a six-year campaign for an Islamist state in north-eastern Nigeria.

Neighbouring countries joined an offensive against the group this year and the conflict spilled across their borders, displacing tens of thousands of people. Last year, the group abducted more than 200 girls from a school in the northeastern Nigerian city of Chibok.