Suspected jihadists kill six in Cameroon

Six villagers were killed overnight in northern Cameroon in an attack attributed to NIgeria's Boko Haram jihadist group, a local leader said today.

The attack occurred in the village of Mangave Foya, said Abdoulaye Yerima Bakari, the head of the Dogba administrative region. "They attacked the home of a district chief, whom they shot, as well as two other people" who were in the building, he said.

When the neighbours came out to investigate the gunfire, the assailants opened fire, killing three of them, he said. A local self-defence group and the security forces, joined by some villagers, gave chase, killing five attackers and arresting three others, he added.

Boko Haram, a militant movement opposed to Western influence and seeking an Islamic state based on Sharia law, has caused the deaths of at least 20,000 people since it took up arms in Nigeria in 2009.

Their insurgency has spilled into neighbouring countries, including Cameroon. Since 2014, the group has killed 2,000 civilians and soldiers and kidnapped about 1,000 people in northern Cameroon, according to an analysis by the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

Cameroon, along with Chad and Niger, has joined a military effort by Nigeria to crush the insurgents.