Suicide attacks killed at least 12 in northern Cameroon

At least a dozen civilians and a Chadian soldier were killed in two suicide attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants in the northern Cameroon town of Fotokol late on Sunday, a senior Cameroonian military officer said.

The first explosion went off inside a bar near a Cameroon special forces (BIR) camp just after sundown as many were breaking the Ramadan fast, the officer said, asking not to be named.

“The second explosion followed as soldiers approached the bar,” he said.

L’Oeil du Sahel, a newspaper in northern Cameroon, said the two attackers wore burqas.

Islamist group Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency six years ago to carve out an emirate in northeast Nigeria, has also stepped up attacks in neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger in recent months.

The group is suspected of launching a similar attack in Chad’s capital, about 60 km (37 miles) east of Fotokol, on Saturday. A man dressed in a woman’s burqa blew himself up in the main market killing 15 people.