No fewer than 32 people have been killed this month of August in northern Cameroon following clashes between herders and fishermen.
UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) disclosed this on Thursday, noting that 19 villages were torched.
According UNHCR, some 11,000 people fled to Chad and a further 7,300 were displaced in Cameroon’s far North after fighting broke out on August 10 between Choa Arab herders and Mousgoum fishermen and farmers.
Officials say the fighting has been Cameroon’s worst ethnic violence in years.
The attack followed herders’ anger over their livestock falling into holes dug by fishermen to capture fish in pools of receding floodwaters, a local official said.
UNHCR said that the refugees in Chad had been in urgent need of shelter with many sleeping under trees.
“(UNHCR) calls on the governments concerned to do everything possible to reduce the intercommunal tensions that have caused this displacement and to ensure the safety of people forced to flee,” said Millicent Mutuli, a regional director of UNHCR.
The clashes is said to have worsened the insecurity in the region, where Cameroon’s army has been battling Boko Haram for years and, more recently, militants linked to Islamic State.