Cameroon: 25 Killed Including Pastor, Boko Haram Feared to Be Behind Attack

Carrie Dedrick | Updated: Aug 05, 2014

Cameroon: 25 Killed Including Pastor, Boko Haram Feared to Be Behind Attack

Attacks in Cameroon are causing many to worry that Boko Haram militants may be expanding their reach of violence outside of Nigeria. 

Militants that are suspected to be Boko Haram members brutally attacked the towns of Kolofata and Baragaram at the end of July, killing at least 25 people. In the first attack, Jean Marcel Kevere, a Lutheran Brethren Church pastor was also kidnapped; he was later found dead. 

In the next attack, the wife of the Kolofata Deputy Prime Minister was kidnapped, along with her maid.

Witnesses of the Kolofata attack report that the militants snuck into the town wearing Cameroonian army uniforms. Once inside the town, they opened fire at residents and looted homes. The method of violence seems to match the style of Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram. 

Cameroon has now stationed 3,000 troops at the Nigerian border to protect its citizens. 

Issa Tchiroma, Cameroonian Minister of Information spokesman said, “We have mobilized all our security and defense forces and the government will leave no stone unturned in the fighting [against Boko Haram] to bring them down.”

“The problem is we are fighting an asymmetric battle.  Nobody knows who is Boko Haram exactly, they have very much infiltrated here and there, [and] it is impossible to know when they will attack.”

Publication date: August 5, 2014



Cameroon: 25 Killed Including Pastor, Boko Haram Feared to Be Behind Attack