Cameroon sacks army officers after suspected Islamist attacks

 

Yaoundé (AFP) - Cameroon's president has dismissed two senior army officers deployed in the country's restive north after at least 15 people died in attacks blamed on Nigeria's Islamist Boko Haram movement, state radio reported Wednesday.

Paul Biya on Tuesday sacked Lieutenant-Colonel Tchanuo Ngongang, commander of the 34th motorised infantry battalion based at Kousseri, in a region where the armed Islamist group has carried out a series of attacks against Cameroonian civilians and the military.

A presidential decree read by the radio station said Colonel Gedeon Youssa, a gendarmerie commander in the north, was also fired.
The two officers had no responsibilities in the town were Sunday's attacks took place.
No reason was given for Biya's decision which came after at least 15 people were killed in the two attacks blamed on Boko Haram in Cameroon's north which borders Nigeria.

The wife of the country's deputy prime minister was among a dozen people reportedly kidnapped, a security source had said Monday.

The attacks targeted the palace of the Sultan Kolofata, and the nearby home of one of the country's most senior politicians, deputy premier Amadou Ali.

The sultan, Seiny Boukar Lamine, his wife and their five children were among the hostages.

Around 200 militants were involved in the raids, Cameroon's minister of communications, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, had told local TV on Sunday.

The attacks came after Cameroon stepped up its fight against Boko Haram in the wake of the international outcry over the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls on April 14.

Boko Haram has long considered the northern Kolofata region, close to the Nigerian border, as a haven for its activities, and as a route for smuggling weapons.

The dramatic raids follow the deaths of several Cameroonian soldiers and gendarmes killed in two attacks blamed on the militants.