Motorcycle suicide bomber kills 3 in north Cameroon market

August 21, 2016 10:53 AM

A suicide bomber killed at least 11 people when he blew himself up close to a mosque in Cameroon near the Nigerian border at the end of June.

Cameroonian soldiers from the Rapid Intervention Brigade stand guard amidst dust kicked up by a helicopter in Kolofata, Cameroon, March 16, 2016.

A suicide bomber on a motorbike killed three people and wounded 24 on Sunday at a market in north Cameroon, where Islamist Boko Haram is waging an insurgency for a breakaway Islamic state across four countries, security sources said.

A senior military official said the bomber was also killed and that it was possible one of the three victims was also on the bike. Another security source said authorities were convinced this was the work of Boko Haram.

A regional offensive against Boko Haram led by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger -- the four countries most affected by the militant group -- has chased it out of towns in the Lake Chad region.

In response, the group has launched a guerrilla campaign mostly targeting the civilian population.

Cameroon has been frequently hit by suicide attacks. A suicide bomber killed at least 11 people when he blew himself up close to a mosque in Cameroon near the Nigerian border at the end of June.

Boko Haram pledged its allegiance to Islamic State last year but the group has apparently split, with Islamic State naming Abu Musab al-Barnawi three weeks ago as the group's leader for West Africa in a two-page interview in its weekly magazine.

But the previous figurehead Abubakar Shekau, or someone claiming to be him, appears to have rejected the new role in another video published after Barnawi's appointment.