In what appeared like an onslaught the Cameroon army on Wednesday said it has dealt with Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists by killing about 100 fighters and freeing 900 hostages in a three-day operation last week.
This followed twin suicide attacks the previous day in the far north of Cameroon, an area repeatedly targeted by the jihadists.
Six people were reported dead in those attacks, according to a new toll.The development as captured in a radio broadcast reads:
“A special clean-up operation from November 26 to 28” against Boko Haram in the border area with Nigeria “neutralised more than 100 jihadists”, Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said in a statement broadcast on national radio.
The sweep enabled troops “to release almost 900 hostages, seize large supplies of arms and munitions as well as black-and-white Islamic State flags”, the statement added, without providing details on the identities of those freed.
The minister attributed the success of the raid to cooperation between Cameroon security forces, a new multinational force being set up to fight Boko Haram and Nigeria’s army.
-Emmanuel Ikechukwu
