A local
self-defence group in Cameroon killed a female suicide bomber using a
poisoned arrow just moments before she was set to blow herself up. The
40-year-old woman, who had explosives strapped to her body, had crossed
over from neighboring Nigeria along with a 14-year-old girl. Local
residents shot the
poisoned arrow at the woman after she failed to stop
as demanded. The girl also died when she detonated her own explosives.
Residents near the northern town of Mora said at least five other suicide bombers have died in the last several days.
The
attacks were reported shortly before Cameroon's president Paul Biya
left for Nigeria to discuss ways of ending Boko Haram violence with his
Nigerian counterpart.
Local
governments on the Cameroonian-Nigerian border have allowed self-defence
groups to bear arms following the threat of Boko Haram.
The
groups have the power to carry out intelligence gathering missions,
question travellers, and denounce to the military anyone deemed
suspect.
Young girls
have been taken by the jihadi group and used as sex slaves before being
forced to carry out suicide bomb attacks as part of a cruel tactic
increasingly used by the struggling extremists.
A
regional offensive last year drove the insurgents from most of their
traditional strongholds, denying them their dream of an Islamic emirate
in northeastern Nigeria.
An
8,700-strong regional force of troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad,
Niger, and Nigeria is seeking to finish the job but now Boko Haram have
been using guerrilla tactics to target civilians.
Outside
Nigeria, Cameroon has been hardest hit by Boko Haram, which now operates
out of bases in the Mandara Mountains, Sambisa Forest and Lake Chad.
Since
August 2014, the jihadi group has carried out 336 attacks in Cameroon,
according to the Cameroonian army, which has lost 57 of its own men
while defending the north.
Of 34 recorded suicide bombings killing 174 people, 80 percent were carried out by girls and young women aged 14 to 24 years.
Girls
abused as sex slaves by the group are psychologically damaged and
therefore more vulnerable, the army says. Boko Haram also uses girls
because they are thought less likely to arouse suspicion, although that
may be changing now.
'The
goal now is to stop Boko Haram incursions into villages, stop them from
planting IEDs (home-made bombs), and stop suicide bombings,' said
Lieutenant-Colonel Felix Tetcha, a senior officer in the army's
operation against Boko Haram.
Mailonline
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