in two bus hijackings in Cameroon and Nigeria, Cameroon residents and a Nigerian intelligence officer said Tuesday.
Boko Haram, who
kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria last year in an incident
that ignited international outrage, have taken eight Cameroonian girls
hostage, said Chetima Ahmidou, the principal of a school in the area.
The girls range in age from 11 to 14 and come from the town of Koza, he
said.
The bus attack took
place Sunday about 11 miles (18 kilometers) from Cameroon's border with
Nigeria. Seven other hostages were slain and their bodies scattered near
the border, said Ahmidou, whose brother was the bus driver and was
among those killed.
Also
Sunday, across the border in Nigeria, the Islamic extremists held up a
bus in Akada-Banga village of Bama district and made off with about 20
people, including women and children, according to a security officer
who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give
information to reporters.
Boko
Haram has fought a 5-year insurgency against the Nigerian government,
launching scores of attacks that left 10,000 people dead last year
alone. In recent weeks, the terror group has intensified its assaults on
neighboring Cameroon and Niger. Together with Nigeria's other
neighbors, Benin and Chad, they have pledged to form an 8,750-strong
multinational force to confront the Islamic extremists.
On
Monday, Niger's parliament voted to approve supporting the mission. The
vote came just hours after a car bombing in the town of Diffa, which
was blamed on Boko Haram, who had launched three other attacks on the
town since Friday.
The United
Nations said Tuesday that a small team of five experts from its
peacekeeping department has deployed to provide support in readying the
force.
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