Over 500 people were slaughtered in eastern Nigeria this week by marauding terrorists from neighboring Cameroon in central Africa. It is not new for people to be slaughtered in northeastern Nigeria, but this slaughter occurred 300 miles further south in an area that used to be safe. The area where these mass killings occurred has pretty river valleys and would be nice to visit if it were not so humid and plagued by killings.
The minority whip in Nigeria’s House of Representatives noted that in southern Tarawa state, “over 500 persons have been killed in several communities in his constituency by terrorists” who were “bandits from the Republic of Cameroon.” “Fikyu, Kpambo, and Kpambo-Puri” are “the most severely affected communities.”
He lamented that “Ussa is becoming a graveyard for children,” saying hundreds of boys and girls are reportedly being killed weekly. “The police spokesperson for the state Command, Abdullahi Usman, in his response acknowledged the cross-border crimes and assured that the command was working to deploy more officers to vulnerable communities.”
Last month, at least 50 people were kidnapped en masse in northern Cameroon. Boko Haram terrorists infest parts of northern Cameroon and neighboring areas of northeastern Nigeria and southwestern Chad. In March 2020, those violent Islamic extremists killed 98 Chadian soldiers in Boma near Lake Chad, the deadliest single terrorist attack in Chad’s history. Boko Haram has killed more than 50,000 people in northeastern Nigeria, and also killed villagers in neighboring northern Cameroon and eastern Niger.
A British man planned to run the entire length of Africa from south to north, passing through the Lake Chad region (including northern Cameroon). But that was before he and his camera crew were robbed further south in the country of Angola. He was robbed even though Angola is a relatively safe African country, and is not nearly as dangerous as Chad or northern Cameroon. After being robbed in Angola, he shifted his journey westward to avoid northern Cameroon and Chad, and now is in the African country of Benin instead (even though Benin’s north is also dangerous).
The Lake Chad region is just south of the Sahara desert. Terrorists also kill people in other regions of Africa bordering the Sahara desert. 44 villagers were slaughtered earlier this year by armed terrorist groups in two villages in the arid north of the African nation of Burkina Faso. A triple suicide bombing killed or maimed dozens in the nation of Mali in April. Mali is a mostly arid nation where the savanna meets the Sahara Desert. In the country’s southwest, which is not arid and supports the growing of many crops, three high-ranking official were killed by rebels in an ambush.
