Boko Haram Operatives Kill Chinese Worker, Kidnap 10 in Cameroon

Boko Haram gunmen have killed a Chinese worker in Cameroon and kidnapped 10 others overnight, piling more pressure on leaders meeting in Paris to thrash out a tougher strategy against the Nigerian Islamists.

Militants stormed an encampment used by Chinese road workers late Friday in a region of northern Cameroon just across the border from the strongholds where they sparked global outrage by abducting more than 200 schoolgirls last month.

"The Boko Haram militants were heavily armed, they came in five vehicles," an official in Waza, a town near the site of the attack, told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said the camp where the Chinese road workers stayed was usually guarded by soldiers from Cameroon's elite Rapid Intervention Battalion, but that many of the troops were in Yaounde for a military parade marking National Day on May 20.

"Cameroonian soldiers retaliated and the fighting lasted until 3:00 am (0200 GMT)," said a local police chief, who said the militants also raided the police armoury in Waza overnight. He said one Chinese worker was killed and 10 others had been missing since the attack and were believed kidnapped by the Boko Haram gunmen.

A source close to the Chinese embassy in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, spoke of 10 missing and one wounded but would not confirm or deny whether one had been killed.

News of the latest attack came as west African and European leaders gathered for a special meeting in Paris aimed at ramping up action against the increasingly regionalised threat posed by Boko Haram.