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Cameroon Says it Killed 116 Boko Haram Fighters After Their Cross-Border Raid

Nigeria’s neighbor is increasingly facing the terrorist group on its territory, fearing attacks and more mass kidnappings after 185 Nigerian women and children were kidnapped on Sunday.
Image via AP

The terrorist group Boko Haram reportedly attacked Cameroonian troops on Wednesday, just days after kidnapping around 200 people in northern Nigeria — just the latest incidents in the militants' campaign of violent insurgency.

 Cameroon defense officials said on Thursday that they retaliated to an attack by the Sunni extremist group on the country's troops. According to AFP, 116 militants and one Cameroonian soldier were killed during the incident.

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The terrorist assault reportedly happened at 10.20 on Wednesday morning in the northern town of Achmide, which directly borders Nigeria. On Sunday, gunmen kidnapped 185 people in a remote Nigerian village, an attack that was only reported on Thursday when survivors got to the city of Maiduguri, according to the BBC.

The Conflict With Boko Haram Could Derail Nigeria's 2015 Presidential Election. Read more here.

In Cameroon, a motorized battalion, formed of a military engineering truck and four special forces pick-up trucks, was caught in an ambush that began with the detonation of an IED. At the same time — suggesting this was part of a coordinated move by Boko Haram — a hundred militants attacked the Cameroonian army's forward operating base for the Achmide region. The military said their response was "immediate and appropriate."

The elite Cameroonian special forces involved in the battle go by the acronym BIR, that stands for Tactical Intervention Brigade. The unit has been active for weeks in the region as a counter force against Boko Haram. This video shows a clash between the BIR, identified the signs on their black helmets, and Boko Haram in northern Cameroon, a few miles from the Nigerian border.

Boko Haram made a similar deadly incursion on Cameroonian soil on October 15, killing dozens of civilians and eight soldiers. Cameroon authorities claim they have killed around one thousand militants and lost 30 soldiers.

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The recent growing number of IEDs in the region, plus the fact that Boko Haram does not hesitate to confront the Cameroon army in numbers, suggests the raids may evolve into a more conventional battle between Boko Haram and Cameroonian forces.

At first mostly active in northern Nigeria, Boko Haram activities have drifted towards the border with Cameroon. In May 2013, Nigeria placed the states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe under a state of emergency. This measure was meant to be temporary, but it was extended in November by parliamentary decision.

Life with Boko Haram: The escapees speak out. Read more here.

Created in 2002, Boko Haram, which is often translated as "Western education is forbidden," is infamous for suicide bombings, militia attacks, and mass abduction of young girls. In April the group kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, around 70 miles from Cameroon.

Then on Thursday it was reported that their fighters raided Gumsuri, a village in Borno. Arriving in pick-up trucks armed with machine guns, the Islamist militants are said to have burned down several houses, before kidnapping 185 women and children. The survivors ran into the bush and walked for over a day, arriving in Borno state capital of Maiduguri to inform authorities, who were unaware of the attack. Boko Haram are said to cut phone lines to isolate villages in the region.

On Monday, during the first African International Forum on Peace and Security held in Senegal, French defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters: "There is a serious threat to the integrity of Nigeria and for its neighbors, be it Cameroon, Niger or Chad." The forum attendees then agreed on the necessity of an alliance of African nations to respond militarily to Boko Haram's growing cross-border impact.

France wants to organize an alliance of African nations to fight Boko Haram. Read more here.

Follow Etienne Rouillon on Twitter: @rouillonetienne