Boko Haram has recently stepped up its attacks in the restive Lake Chad region despite a major regional offensive against the extremists.
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According to Reinnier Kaze of Agence France-Presse, the child bomber blew herself up Saturday night in a bar in the city of Maroua, leaving 79 others injured.
Wednesday’s attack happened near to the border with Nigeria’s Borno state, where the militant Islamist group Boko Haram is most active.
The suicide bomb attacks in Maroua over the past week marked the deepest incursion by suspected Boko Haram militants into Cameroonian territory. Motorbikes, which Boko Haram fighters often use for transportation, are also banned. “Security forces have sealed off the area and have made several arrests”, Cameroon state TV said.
A resident in the town told of “a loud explosion”, saying they had learnt there was an attack at a large bar named “Boucan”.
“There’s panic”, he said.
President Buhari, who hails from Northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram is most active, said there has been progress in the fight, but he refused to predict imminent victory.
“Troops conducting a massive air and land assault took out two truckloads of terrorists in the Damboa area yesterday”, a Nigerian military source told Anadolu Agency on Monday. But he expressed confidence that the Islamists that have launched suicide bombings and village attacks since his inauguration, killing hundreds, would be surrounded and eliminated with the help of neighboring Benin, Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Authorities later told the Associated Press that one of the girls, aged nine, was disguised as a beggar before the explosives went off.
Buhari’s administration has previously said it was not averse to negotiating with the group which has killed thousands and left around 1.5 million people displaced during its insurgency. “Eight of the dead are women”.
Abdullahi added that the bomber was around 40 years old.
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Some 20,000 people have died in the 6-year-old uprising.
