Suspected militants from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram have hijacked a bus in northern Cameroon, abducting at least 20 people, residents say.
Militants allegedly seized a bus, states as BBC report, carrying market-goers and drove it toward the border with Nigeria. Some reports put the total number kidnapped in Cameroon as high as 30. Boko Haram has escalated its attacks outside Nigeria in recent weeks, targeting neighbouring Cameroon and Niger.
The insurgency has forced a postponement of Nigeria’s presidential and parliamentary elections from 14 February to 28 March.
The bus was seized near the border area of Koza and driven towards the Nigerian border 18km away, a resident told the Associated Press news agency.
Nigeria’s National Security Adviser has said the country’s general election, Aljazeera reports, which has been postponed until March 28, will not be moved again and that all known camps belonging to the armed group Boko Haram will be destroyed in the next six weeks.
“All known Boko Haram camps will be taken out. They won’t be there. They will be dismantled,” Sambo Dasuki told reporters on Monday. General Muhammadu Buhari says the government has failed to protect citizens “Those dates will not be shifted again,” Dasuki said when asked if the polls, initially scheduled for February 14, could be pushed back further.
Dasuki said he believed the new military co-operation agreed to between Nigeria and its neighbours – Cameroon, Chad and Niger – will prove decisive against Boko Haram.
Dasuki had urged election officials on Saturday to postpone the vote on the grounds that the military could not provide nationwide election security because all available resources were being deployed to the northeast to fight Boko Haram.
His justification for the delay was widely criticised, in part because the military is not primarily responsible for election security in Nigeria.