Suspected Boko Haram fighters kill 11 in Cameroon

Suspected Boko Haram fighters killed at least 11 people and abducted eight others in an overnight raid on a village in northern Cameroon near the Nigerian border, officials said on Friday.

The attackers burned down more than 30 houses in Gakara village, just outside the town of Kolofata, which has been a frequent target of suicide bombings by the group.

An army colonel put the death toll at 11, while a district official said 15 people had been killed.

“The attack happened around midnight. The Boko Haram assailants arrived. They set 32 houses on fire … killed, pillaged, and traumatised the population,” said the district official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Many people fled the village for a camp near Kolofata that houses thousands displaced by Boko Haram violence, he said.

The mayor of Kolofata confirmed an attack had taken place but said he did not know the death toll.

WATCH – Behind the Rise of Boko Haram

Boko Haram attacks have killed more than 20,000 people and displaced 2.7 million during the group’s eight-year fight to carve out an Islamic caliphate in the Lake Chad region.

On Thursday, five people were killed in an ambush by Boko Haram in Nigeria’s Borno state, according to AFP news agency.

A convoy of trucks under military and militia escort came under fire from the group at Meleri village in Konduga district.

Last week three female suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance to a camp for displaced people in nearby Nigeria’s Mandarari village, killing 28 people and wounding 82.

Boko Haram also stages attacks in Niger and Chad.