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Forces armed with guns and arrows kill girl bombers in Cameroon -sources
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Reuters Africa, 14/12/2015
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* Would-be bombers were adolescent girls - locals
* Suicide bombings almost daily in north Cameroon
* Ten people killed in border town of Kolofata last week
By Josiane Kouagheu
DOUALA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Security forces armed with guns and arrows killed two young women wearing explosive vests in a north Cameroon town on Monday, the second raid there in days by suspected Boko Haram militants from neighbouring Nigeria, witnesses said.
The would-be suicide bombers, described as adolescent girls, entered Kolofata just before dawn, residents and officials told Reuters.
"The first kamikaze (suicide bomber) exploded near my house ... When she entered, the local vigilance committee fired an arrow at her head and she set off her bomb," said resident Bahoua, who declined to give his full name.
Self-defence groups have sprung up across north Cameroon and are overseen by the arm... |
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Jean-Yves Le Drian : « Le rapprochement entre Daesh et Boko Haram est un risque majeur »
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Jeune Afrique, 14/12/2015
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Alors que la France intensifie ses frappes en Syrie, le ministre dresse le bilan des opérations militaires au Mali et en Centrafrique, alerte sur la présence de l'État islamique en Libye et appelle les pays de la région à redoubler d'efforts pour le combattre.
À lire aussi
Défense : Le Drian, ministre de l'Afrique
Jeune Afrique : En septembre 2013, François Hollande déclarait, en parlant du Mali : « Nous avons gagné cette guerre. » N’était-ce pas un peu prématuré ?
Jean-Yves Le Drian : Non. Et d’ailleurs, la situation au Mali n’est plus la même qu’au moment du déclenchement de l’opération Serval, début 2013. À l’époque, le pays était directement menacé par des groupes terroristes qui voulaient en faire un sanctuaire fondamentaliste, d’où ils auraient ensuite pu menacer d’autres pays en Afrique et même en Europe. Ils étaient à Gao, à To... |
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UPDATE 1-Suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers kill 8 in Cameroon
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Reuters Africa, 11/12/2015
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(Adds context and quote)
DOUALA, Cameroon Dec 11 (Reuters) - Eight people were killed and 21 wounded in a suspected suicide bombing by Boko Haram early on Friday morning in Cameroon's Far North region, local officials said.
The Islamist militant group wants to establish an Islamic caliphate in northeastern Nigeria, and its attacks have spilled across the borders of neighbouring countries.
"There were two suicide bombers," said a local official. "Only the first bomb exploded."
Along with Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Benin, Cameroon has contributed troops to an 8,700-strong regional task force dedicated to fighting Boko Haram. The United States has also sent troops to supply intelligence and other assistance.
Last week, Cameroon's army said it had killed 100 members of the group and freed 900 hostages. (Reporting by Josiane Kouagheu; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Kevin... |
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Cameroun : huit morts dans un attentat
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BBC Afrique, 11/12/2015
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Huit personnes ont été tuées et vingt autres blessés vendredi dans un attentat-suicide dans la région de l’Extrême-Nord du Cameroun.
"Un kamikaze est arrivé sur un lieu de vente de beignets et il a actionné sa charge", a affirmé une source sécuritaire de la région.
"On a enregistré huit morts sur place, dont le kamikaze", a-t-elle ajouté, un bilan confirmé par une source proche des autorités régionales.
Début décembre, le ministère camerounais de la Défense a annoncé la mort d'une centaine de djihadistes de Boko Haram tués par l'armée camerounaise, la libération de 900 otages et la saisie des drapeaux de l'Etat islamique (EI) au cours d'une opération dans la même région.... |
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L’éducation est-elle la plus grande victime de Boko Haram ?
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IRIN News, 09/12/2015
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KADUNA/DAKAR, 9 décembre 2015 (IRIN) - Boko Haram se traduit par « l’éducation occidentale est interdite », il n’est donc peut-être pas surprenant qu’un nombre disproportionné d’enseignants soient victimes de ce mouvement extrémiste. Des centaines ont été tués et bien d’autres ont dû fuir les violences.
Un rapport de l’UNICEF publié mi-septembre a révélé que les attaques de Boko Haram avaient déplacé 1,4 million d’enfants dans la région. Des fillettes âgées d’à peine 11 ans ont été utilisées comme kamikazes et envoyées sur des marchés ou des mosquées aux heures d’affluence pour se faire exploser, avec pour instruction d’emporter avec elles le plus de personnes possible. Ailleurs dans le monde, nombreux sont ceux qui ont entendu parler de Boko Haram pour la première fois lorsque le groupe a kidnappé 276 lycéennes à Chibok.
Or, si l... |
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Lake Chad suicide blasts stretch aid agencies, displaced "live in fear"
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Thomson Reuters Foundation, 08/12/2015
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By Kieran Guilbert
DAKAR, Dec 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A series of suicide bombings in Lake Chad in recent months, blamed on Boko Haram militants, has hindered healthcare and aid delivery and left tens of thousands of displaced people living in fear of further violence, aid agencies said on Tuesday.
Four female suicide bombers attacked Koulfoua island on Saturday, killing at least 15 people and injuring 130, the latest in a wave of bombings that prompted Chad last month to declare a state of emergency in the Lake Chad region.
Chad was instrumental in forcing Boko Haram to cede territory earlier this year, but the swampy maze of islands in the border areas between Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria has since become a main target for the militant Islamist group.
More than 50,000 people have been forced to leave their homes due to the violence and threat of further attack... |
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Cameroon says no missing girls among freed Boko Haram hostages
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Reuters Africa, 07/12/2015
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YAOUNDE Dec 7 (Reuters) - Cameroon said on Monday that schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram last year were not among a group of 900 hostages liberated by the West African country's army.
Last week's hostage release raised hopes that some of the girls might be among the group. The army also said it killed at least 100 Boko Haram fighters in the operation as it seeks to strike back after a series of attacks, not least in its Far North region.
"The people that were freed are just villagers. The schoolgirls who are missing are not amongst the group," Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakari told Reuters by telephone.
The freed hostages were driven in crowded open-topped trucks to the town of Maroua in the Far North at the weekend and given food aid and water by regional officials, Reuters television pictures showed.
Boko Haram seized around 200 schoolgirls... |
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Lake Chad: climate change fosters terrorism
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Deutsche Welle, 07/12/2015
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Droughts, unemployment and conflict over resources: residents around Lake Chad are grappling with the consequences of climate change. Terrorist groups like Boko Haram know how to exploit this to their advantage.
"Lake Chad is dying." President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger was peremptory in his speech at the opening of the Paris Climate Conference on Monday, November 30. He was seconded by his counterparts from Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon, all neighboring countries around Lake Chad. Once, the landlocked lake measured more than 25,000 square kilometers (9,700 square miles). Now it covers just 1,500 square kilometers (580 square miles). Droughts in the 1970s and 1980s caused Lake Chad to dry up almost completely, reducing reservoirs and putting the livelihood of millions at risk.
"In Nigeria's northeastern town of Baga there was an inn called 'By the Harbor.' But already in those days... |
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UPDATE 2-Cameroon says frees 900 Boko Haram hostages in military raid
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Reuters Africa, 02/12/2015
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* Over 100 militants killed in November sweep operation - army
* Hostages thought to be residents of border villages
* Strike will not halt broader insurgency - analyst (Adds details from army sources, quotes from analyst, context throughout)
By Anne Mireille Nzouankeu and Sylvain Andzongo
YAOUNDE, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Cameroon's army says it has killed at least 100 members of the militant Islamist Boko Haram group and freed 900 people the group had held hostage as it seeks to strike back after a series of attacks in the West African country.
Cameroon is part of an 8,700-strong regional task force also comprising troops from Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Benin that has pledged to destroy Boko Haram, which though based mainly in Nigeria has become a major threat to wider regional security.
Army spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck said troops had conducted a sweep operation between ... |
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Double suicide blast in Cameroon kills at least three: sources
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Reuters Africa, 02/12/2015
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YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Suspected Boko Haram militants detonated two suicide bombs in north Cameroon overnight, killing at least three people, an official and security sources said on Wednesday.
Suicide bombings, often carried out by young women recruited by the Islamist militant group in neighbouring Nigeria, are becoming almost daily occurrences in Cameroon's Far North region.
"There was a double suicide attack last night in Waza in the far north of Cameroon with a toll of six dead, including the three kamikazes (attackers)," said Michel Oumarou, deputy prefect for the town of Waza.
Two security sources also confirmed the attack, with one of them pegging the death toll higher at six civilians. A third suicide bomber was killed by security forces before she was able to detonate her bomb, one of the sources added.
Cameroon is a target for attacks since it is part of an 8,700-stro... |
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