Cameroon: 4 civilians dead in Boko Haram attacks

YAOUNDE, Cameroon

Four civilians were killed in two attacks by the Boko Haram terror group in northern Cameroon, officials said on Monday.

The attacks took place in the Far North region after an operation by the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a regional security force working against Boko Haram.

"Three members of a vigilance committee were killed in the Mayo Moskota area early in the morning," Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North region, told Anadolu Agency.

"They were shot dead by Boko Haram terrorists at a security post at around 4 a.m. [0300 GMT]."

Another civilian was killed by a Boko Haram group in the Kolofata area, the governor added.

Brig. Gen. Bouba Dobekreo, a MNJTF commander, said the Cameroonian military carried out a sweep around Kolofata on Sunday evening.

"Three Boko Haram fighters were killed and two others captured in the operation," he told Anadolu Agency.

Boko Haram launched a bloody insurgency in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria but later spread its atrocities to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a military response.

More than 30,000 people have been killed and nearly 3 million displaced in a decade of Boko Haram's terrorist activities in Nigeria, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Violence committed by Boko Haram has affected some 26 million people in the Lake Chad region and displaced 2.6 million others, according to the UN Refugee Agency.