Seven Seventh-day Adventist believers have been killed in a night attack in northern Cameroon, marking the most serious loss of life that the church has sustained since Boko Haram militants embarked on a violent campaign to establish a strict Muslim state in Africa about five years ago.
Heavily armed men entered the village of Aïssa Harde, located 11 kilometers east of the regional capital, Mora, around 11 p.m. Thursday, breaking into homes and killing at least nine people, including the seven Adventists, said Richard Hendjena, head of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in northern Cameroon.
The unidentified attackers also burned down stores, causing significant material losses, Hendjena said Friday in a statement distributed by the Adventist Church’s West-Central Africa Division, which includes Cameroon.
Boko Haram, which has been waging conflict in the border area between Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria, has not claimed responsibility for the Sept. 17 killings. But the raid follows the pattern of group, which began staging attacks in Cameroon partly in response to the country’s decision to join forces with its neighbors in opposing the militants. Read More
