Cameroon’s army, backed by a regional force, has reportedly killed at least 100 members of the militant Islamist Boko Haram group and freed 900 people held hostage.
Cameroon Minister for Information, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, said that troops had conducted a sweep operation between November 26 and 28, along Cameroon’s long border with its western neighbour, Nigeria.
It was not immediately clear, where the clashes with the militants had taken place or where the Boko Haram’s captives had been held. It was also not known whether those freed included any of the more than 200 schoolgirls seized by the militants in their dormitories in Chibok, Nigeria, last year.
Cameroon is part of an 8,700-strong regional force also comprising troops from Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Benin that aims to destroy Boko Haram, which though based mainly in Nigeria, has become a major threat to wider regional security.
