Cameroon army kills 86 Boko Haram militants as Nigeria recaptures two towns

A view shows a burnt compound after an attack by Boko Haram militants in the village of Ngouboua.
Image by: STRINGER / REUTERS

Cameroon's army says it has killed 86 Boko Haram militants and detained 1,000 people suspected of links to the Islamist group, as central African leaders held talks on how to combat its bloody insurgency.

Five Cameroonian soldiers were also killed during the clashes in the Waza region near the border with Nigeria, defence ministry spokesman Didier Badjeck said Monday.

Nigeria-based Boko Haram has widened its attacks into neighbouring nations, notably Cameroon and Chad, in a conflict estimated to have claimed a total 13,000 lives since 2009.

Representatives of 10 nations, meeting in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde on Monday under the aegis of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), urged the international community to provide more support in the fightback against the Islamists.

"We have to eradicate Boko Haram," said Cameroon's President Paul Biya, as attendees pledged to create a 76-million-euro ($86-million) fund to fight the group.

Biya declared that Boko Haram's utter disregard for human dignity meant "a total impossibility of compromise", but added that the fight against terrorism was not a "crusade against Islam".

Nigeria, where elections have been postponed by six weeks until late March because of Boko Haram activity in swathes of the northeast, was absent from the talks as it is not an ECCAS member.

The aim of Monday's discussion was to come up with "an agreed solution" on the fight against the extremists, a source close to the Cameroonian government told AFP.

Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria have formed a military alliance to combat the notoriously brutal militants, who are fighting to create a hardline Islamic state.

A Cameroonian army official announced that more than 1,000 people suspected of being affiliated with Boko Haram were being held in the town of Maroua, in the country's Far North region, where more than 2,000 Cameroonian soldiers have been deployed since August last year.

"At the moment, the prison of Maroua is holding more than 1,000 Boko Haram (suspects)," said Colonel Joseph Nouma, commander of a local operation to combat the Islamist militants.

The detentions came as police in Niger said they had arrested more than 160 people suspected of having links to Boko Haram in the country's Diffa region, a border area with Nigeria which was attacked by the Islamist group this month.

Nigerian soldiers backed by air strike s recaptured two towns from Boko Haram on Monday as U.S. and regional troops began war games in neighbouring Chad, part of a growing international campaign to counter the Islamist militant group.

However, guerrillas from Boko Haram, which has killed and kidnapped thousands in a six-year insurgency in Africa's most populous nation, still managed to attack a military camp near Waza in northern Cameroon, wounding several soldiers.

"The wounded are being evacuated. The insurgents have been stopped," a Cameroonian military officer told reporters in Maroua, a town just south of the restive Lake Chad region where Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon meet.

After coming under fire, the soldiers in Cameroon, where 100 people were massacred in a Boko Haram border raid two weeks ago, hit back by killing several guerrillas and capturing an armoured personnel carrier, the officer added.

Monday's strike beyond Nigeria's borders is typical of Boko Haram's recent tactics - hitting troops gearing up for a coordinated campaign against its effort to build an Islamic caliphate in northeastern Nigeria.

In Nigeria itself, where the insurgency was cited as the main reason for postponing a Feb. 14 election by six weeks, the military said it was going on the offensive after months of criticism for an insufficient and inefficient response.

Troops backed by aircraft recaptured the northeastern town of Monguno, on the shores of Lake Chad, it said in a statement. Monguno was seized by Boko Haram in an offensive last month that also targeted Maiduguri, the regional capital.

"The air and land operation is continuing with aggressive advance towards other designated communities and locations meant to be cleared in the ongoing offensive against the terrorists," defence spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade said.

The army had also seized the nearby town of Marte, the statement said.