DOUALA (Reuters) – At least 22 people have been killed and more than 30 others injured this week in Cameroon’s Far North region in a resurgence of tit-for-tat violence between Arab Choa herders and Mousgoum farmers, a regional government official said on Thursday.
Hundreds of people fleeing the violence have streamed across the border into neighbouring Chad, the mayor of Chad’s capital N’Djamena, Ali Haroun, told Reuters.
“We are in a full-on inter-community conflict,” said the Cameroonian regional official, who asked not to be named.
Chad’s President Mahamat Idris Deby said on Twitter late on Wednesday that over 30,000 Cameroonians had sought refuge in Chad, but did not specify if they were all from the latest wave of violence.
Similar clashes occurred in northern Cameroon in August between Choa herders and Mousgoum fishermen, killing dozens of people and forcing thousands to flee to Chad.
In his Twitter message, Deby urged the international community to provide prompt aid to help Chad deal with the situation.
(Reporting by Josiane Kouagheu and Mahamat Ramadane; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Aaron Ross)
