A woman and a 16-year-old boy in the mainly Christian village of Grossi in northern Cameroon have been murdered by raiding Boko Haram militants, according to a Barnabas contact.
The boy was kidnapped on 1 June and later killed. The woman was murdered in the bush as she collected grass for her sheep on 8 June.
The murders took place in or near Grossi village, which is often targeted by Boko Haram. About eight homes were also set on fire by the Islamists during the raid, said our contact.
“We need your prayer because it is not easy,” he said.
At least two previous attacks have been carried out on the village this year. On 11 May, Boko Haram militants ransacked the village with two church buildings burnt out, 67 houses and two shops damaged, livestock butchered, motorbikes stolen and grain stores damaged. In an earlier Boko Haram attack on Grossi on 25 January, 190 houses were razed when the attackers overwhelmed local security forces.
Christian villages in the far north of Cameroon are subject to attacks by Boko Haram militias attempting to establish an Islamic caliphate from north-eastern Nigeria all the way to northern Cameroon, which is predominantly Christian. The UN estimates that more than 170,000 Cameroonians, mainly Christians, have been forced to flee their homes by Boko Haram.
From Barnabas Fund contacts