African News
The peaceful Nigerian fishing village of Manga sits not far from Cameroon’s border, but its residents know all about the separatist war raging inside their West African neighbour.
Cameroon’s five-year conflict is spilling over into Nigeria, where the armed forces are struggling to secure the border as they battle jihadists, bandit gangs and separatists of their own elsewhere.
Cameroonian security forces and separatist gunmen care little for territorial integrity of their neighbour where they have carried out cross-border raids, attacks on villages and made illegal arrests.
Manga lived though the bloody experience at the end of last year.
On November 17 around 50 armed separatists crossed over from Cameroon, attacking the village and killing five people including Manga’s 70-year-old chief, residents say.
Dozens of bullet holes still mark the earthen walls of the chief’s house and its upper part is charred by fire.
“I had never heard gunshots like that,” said Abubakar Manga, the chief’s brother, who managed to escape on a canoe from where he watched the attack.
“We still don’t understand,” he told AFP.
Two days before, about 30 Cameroonians had found refuge in Manga, after the attack on their village in Cameroon.
“In my village, the separatists confronted the army, but did not attack us,” said one of these refugees.
“But suddenly they changed and started destroying our houses,” said the man who spoke on condition of anonymity for his security…
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