Yaound -
Two women suicide bombers who were foiled in a bid to attack a village market
in northern Cameroon blew themselves up on Tuesday, wounding two farm workers,
security sources said.
The women took their own lives at around 06:20 in the village of
Gouzoudou in Kolofata district, which has seen three such explosions by
Islamists of Boko Haram so far this month.
A source in the security forces, asking not to be named, told AFP
that the two women detonated their bombs at the entrance to the village.
"The two suicide bombers clearly planned to blow themselves
up on Monday, which is market day in the village, but it had been secured by
security forces," a source close to local authorities said.
Unable to target a crowded market, the pair chose instead to
"hide out" before setting off their bombs at dawn, the source added.
"Two people on their way to the fields were wounded."
First
bomber
The blasts came two days after a young girl and boy killed three
people in the town of Mora in the same part of far northern Cameroon, near the
Nigerian border, according to security sources.
One of those killed was a Cameroonian police officer who had just
come off duty and challenged five suspects as he headed to the market to buy
food, one source said.
A first bomber blew himself up with the policeman, while another
detonated his device a few hundred metres away and the other suspects fled the
scene.
Cameroonian troops have joined a five-nation regional military
force taking the offensive to the Nigerian armed extremists, whose insurgency
since 2009 has killed at least 15 000 people and left more than two million
homeless.
Since July, the Islamist movement has killed about 100 people in
the far north of Cameroon.
Police have stepped up their presence at markets in the region
ahead of the Feast of Sacrifice, a key Muslim holiday.
If Sunday's bombers in Mora "had succeeded in their plan, the
toll would have been terrible", a security source said.
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