Fotokol (Cameroon) (AFP) -
Nigerian Boko Haram fighters went on the rampage in the Cameroonian
border town of Fotokol Wednesday, massacring dozens of civilians and
torching a mosque before being repelled by regional forces.
The onslaught
came a day after Chad sent troops across the border to flush the
jihadists out of the Nigerian town of Gamboru, which lies some 500
metres (yards) from Fotokol on the other side of a bridge.
Chad's army said it had killed
more than 200 Boko Haram militants in the intervention -- the first by
regional forces against Boko Haram on its home ground. But some of the
insurgents escaped, it added.
On
the Cameroonian side of the border, the Boko Haram assault on Fotokol
left nearly 70 civilians and six Cameroonian soldiers dead, a local
security source told AFP.
There were also Boko Haram bodies "everywhere," the source added.
"Boko Haram inflicted so much damage here this morning. They have killed
dozens of people," Umar Babakalli, a resident of Fotokol, told AFP by
telephone.
Several residents said civilians' throats were slit and that the town's main mosque was torched.
"They burnt houses and killed civilians as well as soldiers," a source close to security forces said.
After
several hours of clashes Cameroonian troops, backed by Chadian forces
who scrambled back from Nigeria to help guard the town, managed to repel
the assault.
No official death toll was immediately available.
On Tuesday, nine Chadian
soldiers were killed and 21 were injured in Gamboru after around 2,000
troops backed by armoured vehicles poured across the border to take the
fight to Boko Haram after days of clashes.
The sound of automatic gunfire could still be heard in the town later Wednesday as troops sought remaining rebel elements.
The
intervention came days after the African Union backed plans for a
7,500-strong five-nation regional force to take on the extremists, who
control vast swathes of northeast Nigeria.
Nigeria's
military has drawn fierce criticism for failing to rein in the
insurgents, who have stepped up their campaign of terror in the
northeast in the run-up to presidential and parliamentary elections on
February 14.
In recent months
Boko Haram, which aims to establish an Islamic caliphate, has also
carried out increasing cross-border raids, threatening regional
security.
Viewing the widening field of Boko Haram activity a
direct threat to its national interests, Chad has deployed its
war-tested army to join the fight against the extremists, and has
reportedly now entered Nigeria in at least two places.
According
to several sources, Chad has also amassed forces and hundreds of
vehicles along the border area between Nigeria and Niger -- a zone not
far from Boko Haram's stronghold.
N'Djamena
has not yet officially confirmed its troop movement into Niger, but it
is now thought Chad may be positioning its forces to be able to trap
Boko Haram in pincer offensives launched simultaneously from the north
and south.
In Gamboru, the
offensive, which was preceded by days of Chadian air strikes, had left
scenes of desolation, with bodies lying on the ground, houses destroyed,
shops gutted and trucks charred.
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