Boko Haram: More than 70 people arrested in Quranic school

At least 72 people have been arrested in the house of a witch doctor during a police raid in Ngaoundéré, North of Cameroun, where the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram prevails, according to reliable sources.

"The police force launched a raid at the Haussa quarters in Ngaoundéré, the capital of Adamaoua, during which 72 people were arrested at a witch doctor’s residence on Saturday,” a close source affirmed to AFP.

In addition to the witch doctor, the police force discovered “17 Natives of Niger (ten women, a man and six children) in an abnormal circumstance, 19 individuals without official papers but presented themselves as Cameroonians and 35 other people of Cameroonian nationality,” she added.

According to this source, "some had their feet chained". All these people seemed to have been held captive by the 'marabout' who had been given a task "to teach them the Koran", she continued, specifying that the circumstances of their presence at the place were still to be cleared.

Except for the six children and two teenagers of 15 and 16 years, the majority were adults, the same source revealed.

A police source confirmed this information, speaking about a “Koranic school where many people were held like prisoners by a ‘marabout’. These people must from now on be interrogated by the services of Cameroonian safety to determine what really happened.”

The Cameroonian authorities considerably reinforced the safety measures after the five suicide attacks allotted to Boko Haram which struck the north of Cameroun in July, causing about fifty deaths. Raids, searches and arrests have multiplied for a few days in various cities of the country, in order to prevent the risk of new attacks.

The integral Islamic veil was also forbidden in the area because kamikazes used this type of full clothing to hide explosives.