Gunmen from Nigeria kill five Cameroonian soldiers

Gunmen from Nigeria have killed at least five Cameroonian soldiers and wounded several others in the village of Bakinjaw on Cameroon’s border with Nigeria, a member of parliament for the district and a traditional leader said on Saturday.

It is the latest in a series of attempts to seize territory in the area.

Aka Martin Tyoga, MP for the district of Akwaya in southwestern Cameroon, where the incident took place, told Reuters the attack happened early on Friday, when hundreds of armed Fulani herdsmen crossed the border from Taraba state in Nigeria to attack a military post.

He said it was a retaliation after Cameroonian soldiers killed several herdsmen the day before. Agwa Linus, traditional ruler of Bakinjaw, said the attackers also burnt down his home.

“This is not the first time they are attacking – it’s very unfortunate,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rwanda-backed M23 rebels moved closer Friday to a key town in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, capturing a nearby area, sources told AFP.

The March 23 Movement (M23), a militia supported by neighboring Rwanda and its army, has seized vast swathes of the eastern territory of the DRC since 2021, displacing thousands and triggering a humanitarian crisis.

Angola-mediated talks between DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame were abruptly canceled in mid-December over disagreements on the terms of a proposed peace deal.

Officials said the M23 had taken control of the Katale area — the last place the rebels must pass before entering Masisi, the administrative capital of the Masisi territory. Telesphore Mitondeke, Masisi civil society president, told the media that several deaths in clashes in the area had been reported among the population, although no figures are currently available.

“It is necessary to note the serious human damage … it is revolting,” he said.

Masisi is located around 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the North Kivu provincial capital Goma.

In late December, the rebels were continuing their latest offensive, launched just ahead of a planned summit in the Angolan capital that was supposed to return peace to the region.

M23 forces were only around 50 kilometers from the town of Lubero and around 100 kilometers from the key commercial hub of Butembo.

For 30 years, the DRC’s mineral-rich east has suffered from the ravages of fighting between local and foreign armed groups, dating back to the regional wars of the 1990s.

By Agencies