Cameroon army ‘kills more than 100 Boko Haram fighters’

By Reinnier Kaze and Aminu Abubakar

Yaoundé (AFP) – Cameroon said its soldiers had killed “more than 100″ Boko Haram fighters during an attempted incursion by the Nigeria-based Islamist insurgents, while across the border thousands continued to flee the group’s advances.

The Cameroonian army dealt “a severe setback” to Boko Haram during clashes in the north of the country on Saturday, government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary said in a statement read out on state radio.

The statement, which could not be immediately verified, said Boko Haram militants fired two shells on the town of Fotokol in Cameroon’s northern tip, on the border with Nigeria.

“There were no casualties reported on the Cameroonian side,” the statement said.

“Our defence forces responded vigorously with mortar fire aimed at the positions held by units of the Boko Haram terrorist group. The Cameroonian response resulted in over 100 deaths among the aggressors.”