Northern Cameroon Announces Ban on Burkas and Face Veils

In this Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, photo, Pakistani schoolgirls, who were displaced with their families from Pakistan's tribal areas due to fighting between militants and the army, listen to their teacher, not seen, while a health worker visiting their school to give polio vaccines, in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan. Wonder Woman and Supergirl now have a Pakistani counterpart in the pantheon of female superheroes _ one who shows a lot less skin. Meet Burka Avenger: a mild-mannered teacher with secret martial arts skills who uses a flowing black burka to hide her identity as she fights local thugs seeking to shut down the girls' school where she works. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

YAOUNDE, Cameroon—A Cameroon governor says the country’s north has banned women from wearing burkas and face-covering veils after suicide bombings by females in burkas killed at least 14 people in a northern town on Sunday.

Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of Cameroon’s Far North Region, said Wednesday the region has also banned Muslims from meeting in large groups without permission, as the end of Ramadan nears. He said the measures are for security reasons.

Boko Haram has been launching attacks outside Nigeria, and then retreating. Cameroon has arrested dozens accused of promoting radical ideology and collaborating with Nigeria’s Boko Haram.

According to Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics, about 20 percent of Cameroon’s 22 million people are Muslim.