(Reuters) – Cameroon’s army killed at least 41 Islamist militants as it fought off a wave of attacks along its border with Nigeria over the weekend in an escalation in the conflict, the government said.
The coordinated assaults on five towns and villages showed a change in tactics by Nigerian Boko Haram fighters, who have focused on hit-and-run raids on individual settlements in the past, Information Minister Issa Tchiroma added.
Boko Haram’s campaign to carve out an Islamist caliphate has spread from its stronghold in northeast Nigeria to neighboring Cameroon, raising fears for an already unstable region also threatened by Islamist militants in the Sahel.
At least 34 militants were killed after the army laid siege to a base used by the militants in Chogori, and seven others and one soldier were killed near the town of Waza, he said.
The Islamists briefly occupied an army camp in Achigachia after a fierce fight, but withdrew after air attacks, army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Didier Badjeck told Reuters by phone.
All the militants had now pulled back into Nigeria, Badjeck said.
Both Tchiroma and Badjeck said it was too early to give full details of casualties.
Boko Haram has killed more than 40 soldiers and recruited hundreds of youths during raids in Cameroon’s Far North region this year.
