Boko Haram kidnaps 20, kills 12 in Cameroon

Nairobi, Feb 10 (IANS/EFE) The Nigeria-based Boko Haram terrorist group abducted at least 20 people from a bus in northern Cameroon and later killed at least 12 of them, media reported Tuesday.

The daily News Nigeria quoted security officials as saying the militants hijacked a bus that was covering the route between two cities close to the Nigerian border Sunday.

After killing 12 of the people they took as hostages, they let the others go free, according to a Cameroonian man quoted by the newspaper whose wife was among the kidnapped passengers.

Until the end of last year, attacks by Boko Haram were limited to Nigeria, especially in the northern Nigerian provinces of Yobe and Adamawa, but since January 2015, the group has launched a new wave of violence in the neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

The African Union recently agreed to deploy a regional force of 7,500 soldiers to halt the advance of the terrorist group, while Chad has already deployed hundreds of soldiers in northern Cameroon and Nigeria.

In a video response released Monday, the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekauk, said the deployment of Nigerian, Cameroonian and Chadian troops was "useless".

"Your alliance will not achieve anything. Gather all your weapons and confront us. We will welcome you," he added in Arabic.

Chadian troops regained control of the Nigerian town of Gamboru, after killing at least 250 members of Boko Haram in two days of fighting along the border between Nigeria and Cameroon.

In response, the terrorist group stepped up attacks in Cameroon, where at least 100 civilians were slaughtered in the town of Fotokol on the Nigerian border.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 7,000 civilians have been killed in attacks carried out by Boko Haram since 2009.

--IANS/EFE

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