Four suicide bombers strike Bodo in far north of country, the second time the town has been attacked in a month

Four suicide bombers have killed at least 35 people in a village in Cameroon’s Far North region, the most deadly in a string of recent attacks in an area beset by violence connected to Boko Haram. A local official said on Monday: “There was a quadruple suicide bombing in the village of Bodo this morning. There are around 25 deaths and several wounded.” When issuing the revised death toll later, officials said around 65 people had been injured in the blasts.



Two bombers struck the Bodo central market while others hit the town’s main entrance and exit points. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.



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Cameroonian troops form part of an 8,700-strong regional force created to defeat Boko Haram, the militant group that has waged a six-year campaign to carve out a separate state in north-eastern Nigeria. Boko Haram has stepped up attacks outside Nigeria over the past year in countries including Cameroon, Chad and Niger, threatening regional security.

The bombing on Monday was not the first time Bodo has been targeted. At the end of December, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance to the town. Officials said at the time that the bombers were trying to access the market but were stopped by local residents. No others were injured in that incident.

On 13 January, a suicide bomber killed 12 people and wounded at least one other in an attack on a mosque in Kouyape, northern Cameroon. Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria have all contributed troops to a regional offensive devoted to driving back Boko Haram, and the US has provided military supplies and troops for assistance.

In response to the attacks, said Cameroon’s minister of communications, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, on Monday night, soldiers had carried out raids into Nigeria from the Cameroonian town of Achigashia, killing at least 17 insurgents. “The suicide bombers were escorted to Cameroon by Boko Haram fighters,” Bakary said. “We must trace them wherever they are.”