No fewer than 100 people were murdered by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents in Cameroon between Wednesday and yesterday.
In a rampage across some Cameroonian communities, the sect?s members burnt churches, mosques and houses while shooting indiscriminately.
French President, Fran?ois Hollande, however, has warned that the world is not doing enough to end the wanton killings by the sect.
Cameroonian officials said more than 500 wounded people were trapped in the town of Fotokol where fighting began Wednesday and continued Thursday. They said Boko Haram fighters were using civilians as shields.
While the terrorists had previously carried out attacks in Cameroon, the latest bloodshed came after the group had 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 was even as African Union officials met yesterday to finalise details for a multinational force to attack the insurgents, though deployment could be delayed by funding issues. African leaders last week authorised a 7,500-strong force to fight the sect 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 foreign reporters 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.
Hundreds of insurgents were killed Wednesday compared to the loss of 13 Chadian and 6 Cameroonian troops, Defense Minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo said. At least 91 civilians have been killed and most of the estimated 500 wounded cannot be immediately taken to the hospitals, he said. There was no way to immediately confirm the account independently.
The fighters are believed to have crossed into Cameroon from nearby Gamboru, a Nigerian border town that had been an extremist stronghold since November. Gamboru was retaken earlier this week and the fighters driven out amid Chadian and Nigerian air strikes supported by Chadian ground troops.
French jets also are flying over the area to provide intelligence, French defense officials in Paris said. President Francois Hollande said France also is supporting the operations with logistics, including providing fuel and sometimes munitions. Hollande stopped short of saying whether France is participating in military action. France has a big air base at N?Djamena, the capital of Chad, which will lead the multinational force. N?Djamena lies on the eastern edge of Cameroon?s panhandle, near the conflict zone.
The French leader told a Paris news conference that France supports African forces fighting the ?terrorist sect? behind ?horrible massacres.?
