Five people were killed in an overnight attack by jihadists in the Lake Chad region of northern Cameroon, sources said today.

“Five civilians were killed by Boko Haram in Blaram,” a village in the Blangoua district of Cameroon’s Far North region, a local official said.

The toll was confirmed to AFP by an army officer in the region.

Based in neighbouring Nigeria, Boko Haram has stepped up attacks in the vast Lake Chad region where the borders of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria converge.

Cameroon says the group has carried out nearly 13,000 attacks on its territory since 2014, with the loss of “several thousand” lives.

The insurgency has forced more than 250,000 people to flee their homes and triggered an influx of 60,000 people from Nigeria.

Source: AFP