Boko Haram militants have  attacked Kolofata, a town in Cameroon’s Far North Region near Nigeria,  and seized several people including the wife of Cameroon’s Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali, a military commander in the region said.

The attack took place today, reported Reuters. No fewer than three persons were also killed by the militants.

Amadou Ali: wife kidnapped

“The situation is very critical here now, and as I am talking to you the Boko Haram elements are still in Kolofata town in a clash with our soldiers,” said Colonel Felix Nji Formekong, the second commander of Cameroon’s third inter-army military region (RMIA3) based in the regional headquarters Maroua.

“Some of them have already taken away the wife of Vice Prime Minister Ahmadou Ali and her house help while the bodyguards of the Vice Prime Minister have succeeded in taking him out of the town to Mora,” Formekong said, adding that there could be more casualties.

The vice prime minister, who was at home to celebrate the Muslim feast of Ramadan with his family, was taken to a neighboring town by security officials.

A local religious leader, or lamido, named Seini Boukar Lamine, who is also the town’s mayor, was kidnapped as well, in a separate attack on his home.

The Sunday attack is the third Boko Haram attack into Cameroon since Friday. At least four soldiers were killed in the previous attacks.

Meanwhile, some 22 suspected Boko Haram militants, who have been held in Maroua since March, were on Friday sentenced to prison sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years. It was unclear whether the events are related.

. Story updated with the kidnap of the Lamido of Kolofata by the Boko Haram gunmen