Suspected Boko Haram fighters in mass kidnapping in Cameroon

Suspected Boko Haram Islamist fighters from Nigeria kidnapped about 80 people, many of them children, and killed three others in a cross-border attack on villages in northern Cameroon, army and government officials said.

The abductions, the largest on Cameroonian soil since the militants began operations across the border last year, came as Chad deployed troops to support Cameroon's forces in the area.

“Around 30 adults, most of them herders, and 50 young girls and boys aged between 10 and 15 years were abducted,” a senior army officer deployed to northern Cameroon said.

He said the early-morning attack had targeted Mabass and several other villages along the border with Nigeria. Soldiers exchanged fire with the raiders for two hours.

Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma confirmed the attack, in which he said three people had been killed. He was not able to say how many people had been taken in the raid. About 80 homes were destroyed.

Earlier yesterday a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a busy bus station in the northeastern Nigerian town of Potiskum, killing four people and injuring 35. – (Reuters)