A suicide bomber apparently targeting a religious site on Christmas day killed two civilians in northern Cameroon, a region often hit by Boko Haram jihadists from Nigeria, the local governor said Sunday.
“The suicide bomber was certainly targeting a religious site, but we cannot say exactly which one. It’s Christmas day and there are prayers” being said everywhere, Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North region of Cameroon, told AFP.
“We have two deaths reported at the site, the suicide bomber and a member of a security committee, and a third person died at hospital,” he said, referring to a 19-year-old student.
The governor added that there were also five others wounded and hospitalised but their condition was not life-threatening.
Police have surrounded a Christian church in the town of Mora which has been locked down by soldiers, a Christian teacher there who requested anonymity told AFP. The region is home to Christians, Muslims and animists.
Northern Cameroon, bordering Nigeria and Chad, has been frequently targeted by Boko Haram Islamists who have waged an insurgency in northern Nigeria since 2009.
The Cameroonian army has joined a regional offensive to end Boko Haram’s brutal insurgency that has left at least 20,000 people dead and some 2.6 million displaced.