Cameroon’s army kills 100 Boko Haram fighters, frees 900 hostages

Cameroon’s army has dealt a major blow to Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists, killing around 100 fighters and freeing 900 hostages in a 3-day operation.

Flags belonging to Islamic State were found in the raid, alongside an “important stock of weapons and ammunition” according to Joseph Beti Assomo, Cameroon’s minister of defense.

Countries in the region have been stepping up their fight against Boko Haram. And the al-Qaeda-linked group has responded with more violence, attacking soft targets.

Boko Haram swore allegiance to the Islamic State in March 2015.

The sweep operation was carried out in the Sambisa Forest region around Lake Chad, which is near the northern border of Cameroon and Nigeria. The troops involved in the operation were part of a regional task force dedicated to combating Boko Haram, which also involves troops from Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Benin.

The multinational hostages from Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad are being reunited with their families and provided with trauma care, said Cameroon’s government spokesperson Issa Tchiroma Bakary. It is unknown whether any of the over 200 girls that were abducted from a government school in Chibok, Nigeria in 2014 are among the freed hostages.

Boko Haram, which is seeking to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria. Over the past year the jihadist group has stepped up cross-border attacks in Niger, Chad and Cameroon while also continuing to mount shooting and suicide assaults on markets, mosques and other mostly civilian targets within Nigeria itself.

Source: Agencies