Boko Haram suspected in Cameroon suicide attacks

At least a dozen civilians and a Chadian soldier have been killed in two suicide attacks by suspected Boko Haram fighters in the northern Cameroon town of Fotokol, a senior Cameroonian military officer said.

Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency six years ago to carve out an emirate in northeast Nigeria, has also stepped up attacks in neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger in recent months.

The first explosion went off Sunday in a bar near a Cameroon special forces (BIR) camp just after sundown as many were breaking their daily fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the officer said, asking not to be named.

"The second explosion followed as soldiers approached the bar," he said.

L'Oeil du Sahel, a newspaper in northern Cameroon, said the two attackers wore burqas.

Boko Haram is suspected of launching a similar attack in Chad's capital, about 37 miles east of Fotokol, on Saturday. A man dressed in a woman's burqa blew himself up in the main market, killing 15 people.

Reuters