Boko Haram Seizes Town On Cameroon Border

Following the battle between Boko Haram militants and soldiers in Cameroon on Friday, October 23, the insurgents have seized control of a town in the far north of the country which lies on the border with Nigeria. A security source who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the Nigerian Islamist group now control Kerawa

Boko Haram militants battled with soldiers in neighboring Cameroon after raiding a village in a remote border region.

According to Reuters, the insurgents attacked Kerawa in Cameroon’s far north zone on Thursday, October 22, leaving at least 12 people dead, the same day they carried out a similar raid nearby and a suicide bombing in neighboring Chad..

Colonel Badjeck, the army’s spokesman said: “We are inflicting an extremely heavy death toll on Boko Haram’s side, I forcefully insist that Kerawa is not in Boko Haram’s hands.”

The United Nations refugee agency last week said Boko Haram militants have made swamp lands of Lake Chad, where the borders of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria meet, into a war zone.

Boko Haram has waged a six-year campaign for an Islamist state in northeast Nigeria. After neighboring countries joined the war against the insurgents last year, the conflict has spilled across their borders, displacing tens of thousands of people.

Boko Haram used Cameroon’s impoverished Far North to stockpile supplies and recruits until the government cracked down on the group last year.