A young woman reportedly of the Boko Haram terror group blew herself up in northern Cameroon last Friday, killing at least 13 people, the Barnabas Fund reported Tuesday.
A group of armed Islamic militants raided the predominantly Christian village of Mozogo in Cameroon’s Far North Region, after which the young woman detonated her explosives amidst a crowd of villagers, killing men, women, and children.
“Boko Haram terrorists stormed the village, firing shots in the air. Villagers fled to a park, where Boko Haram fighters brought a girl strapped with explosives,” said Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North Region. “Twelve villagers, the young suicide bomber, and a Boko Haram terrorist were killed in the explosion, while two more people were seriously injured.”
According to the village chief, Mahamat Chetima Abba, the militants arrived brandishing machetes and firing guns into the air in the early hours of Friday 8 January.
“They infiltrated the population. Boko Haram is inflicting more and more damage here,” Mr. Abba said.
“Frightened, the population fled into the park. It was at this point that a woman carrying an explosive charge allegedly entered the fleeing crowd and detonated her charge,” reads a U.N. security report.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said that five of the people killed in the attack were young children between the ages of 3 and 14 and another six children, aged 9 to 16, were “gravely injured.”
“I condemn this horrific act and call for the immediate cessation of attacks against children, their families and communities,” Ms. Fore said in a statement. “There is absolutely no justification for the targeting or use of children to carry out attacks.”
Boko Haram is very active in Far North Cameroon, where Christian communities are often subjected to lethal violence from heavily armed Islamist militants.
Since Boko Haram began its violent activities in northeast Nigeria in 2009, more than 36,000 people have been killed, mostly Nigerians, and three million people have been forced from their homes.