country's northern border into Nigeria on Friday, a day after the
Islamist militants killed at least eight people in an attack in the
remote region that aid groups say is becoming a war zone.
Boko Haram fighters had stormed the village of Kerawa in Cameroon's
Far North Zone on Thursday afternoon, the local prefect said, the same
day as a similar raid nearby and a suicide bombing in neighbouring
Chad.
"The arrival of reinforcements from our security forces… mean the
thugs have been forced to retreat across the border to Nigeria," the
prefect told Reuters.
Colonel Badjeck, the army's spokesman, said that the military had
caused heavy casualties in Boko Haram ranks but no official death toll
was available.
Boko Haram guerrillas have made the swamplands of Lake Chad, where the
borders of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria converge into a war zone,
the United Nations refugee agency said last week.
Boko Haram has waged a brutal six-year campaign for an Islamist state
in northeastern Nigeria. Since neighbouring countries joined an
offensive against the group last year, the conflict has spilled across
their borders, displacing tens of thousands of people.
Boko Haram used Cameroon's impoverished Far North to stockpile
supplies and recruits until the government cracked down on the
jihadist group last year.
Cameroon is also in an 8,700-strong regional force led by Nigeria
against the militants, expected to be operational by the end of the
year. The United States is sending military supplies and troops to the
central African country to aid the fight.
-Reuters
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