MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Cameroon forces have killed over 100 members of the Boko Haram radical Islamist group, while releasing almost 900 hostages, Cameroon's Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said Wednesday.
“A special clean-up operation from November 26 to 28 against Boko Haram fighters in the border area with Nigeria neutralized more than 100 jihadists,” Assomo said on national radio, according to South Africa's The Citizen newspaper.
A number of weapons, munitions and Islamic State (ISIL, or Daesh in Arabic) flags were seized during the operation, the defense minister added. The sweep took place in a few towns along the border with Nigeria.
Boko Haram, which operates mainly in northern Nigeria, has also been active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. All of these West African states have waged a counter-terrorist campaign against the group. The extremist group pledged allegiance to ISIL, outlawed in Russia, in March. Nigeria has been identified as a primary location for extremism by the Global Terrorism Index (GTI). Cameroon has been added to GTI's list of countries that experienced at least 500 terror-related deaths in 2015.
