Boko Haram Kidnaps Wife of Cameroon's Vice Prime Minister

By Sarah Price - 28 Jul '14 08:42AM

Boko Haram fighters kidnapped the wife of Cameroon's Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali and killed at least three other people early on Sunday, in an attack on Ali's house in the northern town of Kolofata, Aljazeera reports.

Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary confirmed the news, saying that in the attack on the Far North Region, the fighters targeted the home of Ali as well as a local traditional chief, Washington Post reports.

The Local religious leader and mayor, Seini Boukar Lamine, was also kidnapped. "I can confirm that the home of Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali in Kolofata came under a savage attack from Boko Haram militants. They unfortunately took away his wife. They also attacked the lamido's (religious leader's) residence and he was also kidnapped," Issa Tchiroma told Reuters Sunday.

However, there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

A Cameroon military commander in the region said that security officials had taken the Vice Prime Minister away to a neighboring town. He had been at home to celebrate the Muslim feast of Ramadan with his family when the attack happened.

Cameroon has deployed more than 1,000 soldiers along its border to help fight the Nigerian armed group.

Later on Sunday, Tchiroma told a press conference that the Cameroonian Army had seized control of the town of Kolofata after repulsing the militants, who used "brutal and unqualified violence". This was the third Boko Haram attack in Cameroon since Friday. At least four soldiers were killed in two previous attacks.

Boko Haram launched an uprising in 2009 and thousands of people have died ever since. And, hundreds were killed as the militant group stepped up its campaign against the government in the past two months.