YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) – Nigerian Islamic extremists on the run from a massive, three-nation offensive took revenge Thursday on civilians in neighboring Cameroon, shooting and burning scores to death and razing mosques and churches. France’s president warned that the world is not doing enough to end the wanton killings by Boko Haram.
Cameroonian officials said more than 500 wounded people are trapped in the town of Fotokol where fighting began Wednesday and continued Thursday. They said Boko Haram fighters are using civilians as shields. While Boko Haram had previously carried out attacks in Cameroon, the latest bloodshed comes after the group warned other nations against uniting against it and appears to be a direct result of Cameroon and Chad launching an offensive this week with aircraft and ground troops.
This new military involvement by other African nations in counterinsurgency campaigns in Nigeria stands to grow even bigger – African Union officials met here on Thursday to finalize details for a multinational force to attack Boko Haram, though deployment could be delayed by funding issues. African leaders last week authorized a 7,500-strong force to fight Boko Haram with pledges for a battalion each from Nigeria and its four neighbors, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin.
“We consider Boko Haram to be a cancer, and if the international community does not focus its mind on this disease it will spread not only in Central Africa but other regions, all over the continent,” Cameroon’s Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said Thursday at the beginning of the three-day meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital. Officials from the United States, France, Russia, Britain and the European Union are attending along with senior officials from the U.N. peacekeeping department.
Earlier, Bakary told The Associated Press that some 800 Boko Haram fighters are rampaging through the Cameroonian border town of Fotokol, up in the thin northern panhandle of the West African nation. They have “burned churches, mosques and villages and slaughtered youth who resisted joining them,” he said, adding that the insurgents from Nigeria also stole livestock and food. Schools also have been razed by the insurgents whose nickname, Boko Haram, means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language.