At least 29 people were wounded Wednesday when a women bomber blew herself up in a border town in Cameroon’s Far North, a region frequently hit by Boko Haram jihadists, security sources said.

But a second bomber was shot dead by troops deployed in the town before she could detonate her explosives, the source said.

“A suicide bomber blew herself up this morning in Amchide” on the Nigerian border, a regional security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity and giving a toll of 29 wounded.

The attack occurred on market day when the town was filling up with early-morning shoppers, a local civil defence group official said. “There were many people hurt, I saw about 20,” he said. “After the attack, the market emptied.”

A once-bustling trade hub, in 2014 Amchide was thrust into the forefront of a major battle between Cameroonian troops and Boko Haram militants who held the nearby Nigerian town of Banki for several months. The violence forced most residents to flee the town, although some have now begun to return.

After pushing back Boko Haram, the Cameroonian army dug long trenches around Amchide and even inside the town to foil new incursions by the jihadists, with Wednesday’s attack the first in many months.

AFP