27th August, 2014
Cameroun state-owned radio, CRTV says its military has killed 27 members of Islamist sect Boko Haram near a northeastern town.
According to CRTV, Boko Haram militants crossed the border into Cameroun earlier this week, after attacking villages, a town, a military base and police station in Nigeria causing 480 Nigerian soldiers to flee to Cameroun.
“Cameroun soldiers have killed 27 Boko Haram elements during an attack in a locality near Fotokol in the far north,” CRTV said, noting that, the killings occurred on Monday and Tuesday.
While Cameroun has recorded some remarkable success with curbing Boko Haram, their Nigerian counterparts have struggled to repress the Islamist sect. Cameroun borders a part of northeastern Nigeria that has seen intense fighting over the past two weeks.
On Sunday 17 August, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video where he claimed that Gwoza, a town in Borno state, Nigeria has become an Islamic Caliphate.
It was the first time the militants have made an explicit territorial claim in more than five years of bloody insurgency.
In recent weeks, Boko Haram, which is seeking to carve out a de facto Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has stepped up attacks in Cameroun, leading the central African country to increase deployments along its jungle border.
Last month, Cameroun president, Paul Biya dismissed two senior army officers following attacks in which at least seven people were killed and the wife of the vice prime minister kidnapped.