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| - The UN refugee agency on Tuesday voiced outrage after an "unprovoked and brutal attack" on a camp for displaced people that left at least 17 civilians dead in northern Cameroon. The Nguetchewe camp, hosting 800 internally displaced people, came under assault early Sunday which a local politician blamed on the Boko Haram jihadist group. "Assailants threw an explosive device, thought to be a grenade, into the makeshift camp while people were sleeping," the UNHCR said in a statement, giving the death toll as 18. Cameroon's defence ministry said the "terrorist attack coupled with suicide bombings" killed 17 civilians, two suicide bombers and wounded 16 other people. "Unidentified terrorists" had entered the village in the West African country's Far North region during the night to commit "various abuses and atrocities", the ministry said. The two suicide bombers chased civilians into their homes before setting off their explosives, it added. The UNHCR said "some 1,500 people, including terrified residents of the hosting village, have fled to the nearby town of Mozogo for safety". It has deployed an emergency mission to assess the situation. The agency added it was "outraged" and "strongly condemns" the attack. "This attack follows a significant rise in violent incidents in Cameroon's Far North region," it noted. There have been 87 Boko Haram attacks recorded near Cameroon's border with Nigeria since January, the statement said, quoting Cameroonian figures. Local mayor Mahamat Chetima Abba told AFP "it is clear that it was Boko Haram that was responsible" for the attack. Cameroon's Far North, an impoverished strip of land between Chad and Nigeria, has been a regular target of raids and assaults by Boko Haram since 2013. The jihadist group launched its insurgency in Nigeria in 2009 before spilling over into neighbours Cameroon, Niger and Chad. It has killed more than 30,000 people, forcing three million to flee their homes, according to the UN. rek/cma/dl/bp
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