Armed attack in Cameroon's Far North leaves 15 dead and triggers mass displacement

Hundreds of people have fled their homes after an armed group killed 15 people in the village of Madegoua near the town of Makary in the Far North region of Cameroon.

The attack on Wednesday triggered a wave of displacement from 10 nearby villages. Several hundred people fled towards Kousseri and others went farther afield towards the towns of Mora and Waza close to the border with Nigeria, the RFI news outlet reported.

“They arrived here terrified, sleeping in the open air without food or security,” Mahamat Amadou, a health official in Waza, was quoted as saying by the Africanews outlet.

“Boko Haram asked us to leave our villages. They come to kill us and take our belongings. We are overwhelmed to the point that we have to guard our village from 6pm to 5am,” Kassoum Saley, a displaced resident, told Africanews.

The surge of people arriving in border towns near Nigeria has put pressure on local health services, sparking fears of a humanitarian crisis.

Displaced people said they have not received help from the government, and many women and children have gone days without food.

No group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack, but a security analyst told the Reuters news agency it was likely carried out by the ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in West Africa Province, which operates in the area.

Cameroon’s Far North, which borders Nigeria and Chad, has for years been affected by violence involving Boko Haram and other armed groups operating in the Lake Chad Basin.

Cameroon is part of the Multinational Joint Task Force, which is mandated to fight Boko Haram and other armed groups around Lake Chad.