"Boko Haram Islamists attacked a camp [of road workers]," a local police chief said on condition of anonymity.
"A Chinese [person] was killed. Ten Chinese cannot be found since the attack. We think they have probably been kidnapped."
The incident began when power was cut in the evening. A five-hour gunfight followed, a guard at the Waza National Park told Reuters.
"Some of us decided to hide in the forest with the animals," the guard said, requesting anonymity.
The governor of far north region, Augustine Fonka Awa, said he believed Boko Haram had carried out the attack.
The Islamist group kidnapped more than 200 girls from a school on the Nigerian side of the border last month Nigerian troops backed by foreign units are searching the area around the forest for them.
Mr Awa said authorities are investigating reports that at least one Cameroon soldier was killed and 10 people were abducted.
International efforts to form strategy against Islamist group
The cross-border attack comes as Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan was in Paris for a meeting with the leaders of neighbouring states on forging a regional strategy against the Islamist group.
A source close to the Chinese embassy in Yaounde spoke of 10 missing and one wounded but would not confirm or deny whether one Chinese worker had been killed.
"Cameroonian soldiers retaliated and the fighting lasted until 3:00am (local time)," the officer said.
"The Boko Haram militants were heavily armed, they came in five vehicles," an official in Waza, near the site of the attack, told AFP.
He said the camp where the Chinese road workers stayed was usually guarded by soldiers from Cameroon's elite Rapid Intervention Battalion.
"Their numbers were thinner these past few days because many of them had gone down to Yaounde," for the traditional military parade marking National Day on May 20, the official said.
The police officer said the militants also attacked the police post in Waza and raided its armoury.
The Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted Chinese officials as saying one person was injured. The Chinese embassy suspended visits to the area.
"For companies operating in the northern part of Cameroon in particular, they should instantly start security contingency plans," the embassy said in a statement.
At least two Chinese enterprises operate in the region. Xinhua said an engineering unit of state-run construction company Sinohydro, which is repairing roads, operated the camp. Yan Chang Logone Development Holding Company, a subsidiary of China's Yanchang Petroleum, is exploring for oil.
Boko Haram has staged several attacks in northern Cameroon during its five-year fight to set up an Islamist state. Last month, it attacked a police post killing two people. The rebels also kidnapped a French family in February 2013.
Nigerian authorities say Cameroon has not done enough to secure its border because Boko Haram has been using the sparsely populated far north region as a transit route for weapons and as a rear base for attacks in north-eastern Nigeria.
Cameroon said in March it would send 700 soldiers to its north-eastern border as part of regional efforts to tackle the armed group.
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
