Boko Haram kill one Chinese worker, 10 missing in Cameroon: police

YAOUNDE (AFP, REUTERS) - A Chinese national was killed and 10 others were feared kidnapped after an overnight attack in northern Cameroon believed to have been carried out by Boko Haram militants from Nigeria, police said on Saturday.

"Boko Haram Islamists attacked a camp (of road workers). A Chinese was killed. Ten Chinese cannot be found since the attack. We think they have probably been kidnapped," a local police chief said on condition of anonymity, AFP reported.

A Reuters report named Waza as the site of the attack, saying it was 20 km from the Nigerian border close to the Sambisa forest, a stronghold of Boko Haram which has killed thousands in Nigeria in a five-year insurgency for an Islamist state and threatens to destabilise the wider region.

The vast Sambisa forest is close to the area where Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls last month.

The governor of Far North province Augustine Fonka Awa confirmed the attack but declined to give details.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted Chinese officials as saying unidentified assailants had attacked the camp of a Chinese enterprise operating in Cameroon on Friday night, injuring one person and leaving 10 unaccounted for.

Boko Haram has staged several attacks in northern Cameroon. Last month, it attacked a police post, killing two people. The rebels kidnapped a French family in February 2013.

West African leaders meet in Paris on Saturday to try to improve cooperation in their fight against Boko Haram.

Outrage over the kidnapping has prompted Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, criticised at home for his government's slow response, to accept US, British and French intelligence help in the hunt for the girls.

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