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.
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