Five Christians were killed in a Boko Haram night-time attack on a Christian village in Far North Cameroon on 17 January; the same community the Islamist terrorists had struck less than two weeks before.
A Barnabas contact said villagers left everything behind as they fled the militants’ assault on Hidouwa village, Tourou district. Around 195 homes were damaged during the four-hour rampage, which began at 11 p.m. “Right now we can’t go to that village, even the soldiers have abandoned the village,” he said.
The army has also pulled out of the nearby village of Hitere, scene of a brutal Boko Haram raid on 6 January when two men were killed and two children kidnapped. “They saw the battalion of Boko Haram coming,” said our contact.
Our contact reported that several Christian villages, including Hidouwa and Hitere, are under Boko Haram’s control and terrified families are fleeing, some to the town of Koza. There are concerns that the militants will soon overrun the whole district. “We need prayer because Tourou is in danger,” he said. “Everybody is confused, we don’t know what to do and we can’t understand what is happening. We are asking is it because 98% of the villages are Christian? Pray for we Christians in this area.”
