Hundreds flee homes in Far North Cameroon after armed group raid kills 15

No group claims responsibility for attack, but suspicion falls on ISIL affiliate.

Armed groups operate in the Far North region of Cameroon where hundreds of people have fled their homes for safety. [File: Eugene Sibomana/UNHCR]

Hundreds of people have fled their homes after an armed group killed 15 people in the village of Madegoua near the town of Makary in the Far North region of Cameroon.

The attack on Wednesday triggered a wave of displacement from 10 nearby villages. Several hundred people fled towards Kousseri and others went farther afield towards the towns of Mora and Waza close to the border with Nigeria, the RFI news outlet reported.

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“They arrived here terrified, sleeping in the open air without food or security,” Mahamat Amadou, a health official in Waza, was quoted as saying by the Africanews outlet.

“Boko Haram asked us to leave our villages. They come to kill us and take our belongings. We are overwhelmed to the point that we have to guard our village from 6pm to 5am,” Kassoum Saley, a displaced resident, told Africanews.

The surge of people arriving in border towns near Nigeria has put pressure on local health services, sparking fears of a humanitarian crisis.

Displaced people said they have not received help from the government, and many women and children have gone days without food.

No group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack, but a security analyst told the Reuters news agency it was likely carried out by the ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in West Africa ⁠Province, which operates in the area.

Cameroon’s Far North, which borders Nigeria and ‌Chad, has for years been affected by violence involving Boko Haram and other armed groups operating in the Lake Chad ‌Basin.

Cameroon is part of the Multinational Joint Task Force, which is mandated to fight Boko Haram and other armed groups around Lake Chad.

目前尚无任何组织声称对此次袭击负责，但怀疑对象是“伊斯兰国”的附属组织。

武装团体在喀麦隆极北地区活动，数百人为躲避危险逃离家园。[图片：尤金·西博马纳/联合国难民署]

在喀麦隆极北地区马卡里镇附近的马德古阿村，一个武装团体杀害了 15 人，数百人逃离家园。

周三发生的袭击事件引发了附近10个村庄的大规模流离失所。据法国国际广播电台（RFI）报道，数百人逃往库塞里，还有一些人则前往更远的莫拉和瓦扎等靠近尼日利亚边境的城镇。

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据非洲新闻网报道，瓦扎的一名卫生官员马哈马特·阿马杜表示：“他们来到这里时惊恐万分，露宿街头，没有食物，也没有安全保障。”

“博科圣地要求我们离开村庄。他们来杀我们，抢走我们的财物。我们不堪重负，以至于我们不得不从晚上6点到早上5点守卫我们的村庄，”流离失所的居民卡苏姆·萨利告诉非洲新闻社。

大量民众涌入尼日利亚附近的边境城镇，给当地医疗服务带来了压力，引发了人们对人道主义危机的担忧。

流离失所者表示，他们没有得到政府的帮助，许多妇女和儿童已经好几天没有食物了。

目前尚无任何组织声称对周三的袭击事件负责，但一位安全分析师告诉路透社，此次袭击很可能是由在该地区活动的“伊斯兰国”（ISIS）西非省分支实施的。

喀麦隆极北地区与尼日利亚和乍得接壤，多年来一直受到博科圣地和其他在乍得湖盆地活动的武装团体的暴力活动的影响。

喀麦隆是多国联合特遣部队的成员国，该部队的任务是打击博科圣地和乍得湖周边的其他武装团体。