Cameroon has extended a ban on full Islamic veils in parts of the country as it seeks to curb Boko Haram violence after a string of suicide bombings by female attackers.
The decision comes less than a month after two female suicide bombers wearing full veils blew themselves up on the border with Nigeria in the north, killing 11.
Then on Wednesday twin suicide bombings by two young girls killed 13 people in a market in Maroua in northern Cameroon.
The full veil is already banned in the northern and western regions of Cameroon. It is now also forbidden in the east.
The governor of the East Region chaired a security meeting Thursday that included Muslim clerics where he “announced the ban of a full veil or burqa,” Cameroon Radio Television reported.
Mireille Bisseck, official spokeswoman for the western Littoral region, where the economic capital of Douala is located, told AFP that “the manufacturing, sale and wearing of the burqa” has been banned.
Bisseck said that sermons during Muslim prayers would also be subject to increased surveillance.
Northern Cameroon has been hit hard by Boko Haram attacks, and authorities fear they might spread southwards and into big cities.
