Gunmen kill five on Nigeria-Cameroon border

Unidentified gunmen have killed five people, including three nationals from Nigeria and one from Cameroon, after raiding a United Nations (UN) team on the border between the two countries, the UN has announced.

The deadly raid occurred in the Hosere Jongbi area near Kontcha in northern Cameroon on Tuesday, according to a Wednesday evening statement by the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS).

“An unknown armed group attacked the UN team and killed five persons and injured several others,” read the statement, which also identified the victims as “one UN independent contractor, three Nigerian nationals and one Cameroonian national.”

The UN’s special representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, censured the armed assault.

The statement, which did not mention the nationality of the UN contractor killed in the attack, further explained that the team was working to demarcate the nearly 2,000-kilometer land border dividing Nigeria and Cameroon.

The area has reportedly been a source of tension between the two countries in the past.

SS