At least seven civilians were killed Friday in a suicide attack in Kolofata, northern Cameroon, a region where Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists are highly active, local officials said. "A suicide bomber went to a place selling doughnuts and blew up," a regional security source told AFP. "We have eight dead at the site, including the bomber," the source said, without stating whether the attacker was male or female.
Another source also confirmed details of the attack and gave the same toll. Kolofata, which lies 10 kilometres (six miles) from the border with Nigeria, is located in a region of the same name which has been regularly targeted by Boko Haram extremists. At least seven people were killed in a double suicide attack on the town in September. It is close to Kerawa, another town on the Nigerian border where between 20 and 40 people lost their lives in a September 3 double suicide bombing - one of the deadliest attacks on Cameroonian territory.
Since July, Cameroon's far north has been hit by a series of attacks blamed on Nigeria's Boko Haram which earlier this year pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. The Kolofata attack came as Cameroonian troops have been sweeping the border area in order to weaken the jihadists who are very active in north-eastern Nigeria and the far north of Cameroon. Cameroon, Chad and Niger have formed a military alliance with Nigeria and Benin to battle the extremists, who this year declared allegiance to the Islamic State.