Dozens Abducted by Boko Haram in Cameroon
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - At least 80 people have been abducted and three others killed in a cross-border raid in northern Cameroon by the Nigerian armed group Boko Haram, officials said.
The attack occurred in the village of Mabass, in the Far North region, Cameroon's Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said.
He added that some of the hostages were children, Al Jazeera reported.
"We are dealing with barbaric people, lawless people," Bakary said. "Nothing can prevent them from assassinating."
The raid came a day after neighboring Chad deployed troops to combat Boko Haram in Cameroon and Nigeria, as part of a regional bid to combat the group.
Concern is growing that Boko Haram is expanding its operations into neighboring countries.
Cameroon came under attack last Monday when it said its troops repelled a raid by Boko Haram on a northern military base.
The group has been recruiting fighters in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, and recently issued a video threatening Paul Biya, Cameroon's president.
Brutal raids, massacres, suicide bomb attacks and kidnappings blamed on Boko Haram - which seeks to establish a state in northern Nigeria - have claimed at least 13,000 lives since 2009 and driven an estimated 1.5 million people from their homes.
In Nigeria on Sunday, a suicide bomber killed five people and injured 35 others in the northeast town of Potiskum.
The latest violence come as Chadian troops are seeking to recapture the strategic town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad, which straddles the borders of Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon and which fell to Boko Haram early this month.