26 January 2016•Update: 27 January 2016
By Peter Kum
MAROUA, Cameroon
The casualty toll from a series of suicide bombings in northern Cameroon rose on Tuesday, with officials and local media reporting 32 dead and 86 seriously wounded.
Cameroon Radio Television reported four suicide bombers struck in Bodo town, in the Far North region, on Monday morning.
“We recorded over thirty dead and the death toll may quickly rise,” a security source told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity. “Many serious injured were also reported. They are currently in different hospitals in the region.”
Col. Nomo Jean Claude, the local gendarmerie commander, placed the blame on Boko Haram, which has terrorized the region around Lake Chad in a six-year battle for a separate state in northeast Nigeria.
The government passed on its condolences to the victims’ families and urged people to be vigilant.
Cameroon has joined neighbors Nigeria, Chad and Niger in providing troops to an 8,700-strong force to combat Boko Haram.
Last week, around 20 people were killed in two Boko Haram suicide attacks on mosques in the Far North.
Since the beginning of the year, 15 suicide bombings have been carried out in Cameroon, according to Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary, while more than 1,100 civilians and security force members have been killed in attacks attributed to Boko Haram attacks in the Far North since 2013.
