'Bloody August' in northern Cameroon after Boko Haram attacks
Boko Haram attacks UN camps where thousands of people have fled in search of safety
In recent weeks, thousands of people living in northern Cameroon have been forced to flee their villages because of attacks by Boko Haram jihadists - and this week one of the UN camps they've fled to itself came under fire. At least seven people were killed and 14 others were wounded in the camp at Goldavi, close to the border with Nigeria. It's the second such attack on a camp in the last month.
It all comes after the Nigerian Air Force bombarded the jihadist group from the air in northern Nigeria - apparently driving them over the border into Cameroon. The group now appears to be trying to regroup - raiding the camps for supplies, including tents, generators, medicine and food.
Over the past ten years, violence in the Lake Chad Basin has led to the deaths of more than 30,000 people. 2.7 million people are now displaced internally in north east Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
David Otto Endeley, an international counter terrorism expert from Cameroon, says this highlights the urgent need for regional cooperation in fighting the jihadists - rather than countries working individually:
"Most of these units have been driven out of the Nigerian borders and they're now going into Cameroon, so it's a regional effort that is required to defeat Boko Haram."
(Photo: Boys attend a Quranic school at the Minawao refugee camp which has previously been attacked by Boko Haram. Credit: Patrick Meinhardt / AFP)
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