Calm is yet to return to a group of villages near Cameroon’s border with Nigeria after they were attacked on three consecutive days in the last week.

Many people have fled Buku and Abadan villages in Ako, Northwest Cameroon, after as many as 16 armed men attacked the two settlements repeatedly between Saturday, April 1 to Monday, April 3.

The attackers abducted as many as 22 men and women from the villages. 

The men have been identified as Nigerians and are believed to have come over the border from Taraba state.

“We fear that there may be more,” said Mayor Nkangu Nkwain during a telephone interview. 

Sources say the attackers also looted homes and collected money from commercial bike riders plying the road. 

Ako is said to have a limited number of security forces, attackers were able to carry out the attacks uninterrupted.

The Mayor says he made a distress call to authorities after the attack and called on them to strengthen security in Ako and help recover those who have been abducted with their families.

“Along the Cameroon-Nigeria border, there is a huge trade along Ako-Abongshie-Taraba State in Nigeria, and this warrants an increased presence of the military and police,” he said. 

There has been no word from the kidnappers either to the council or families of victims since Saturday.

Mayor Nkanya has called for the immediate and unconditional release of those kidnapped. 

It is the first time Ako has experienced such an attack. The town had before now remained peaceful despite an ongoing war in  other parts of the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.