Cameroonian troops kill 143 Boko Haram fighters

Yaoundé – Cameroon’s army has said it killed 143 Boko Haram fighters, with the government saying it was the biggest defeat it had inflicted to date on the Islamist group.

The government spokesman, Issa Bakary, made the announcement on Tuesday in Yaoundé.

He said the insurgents were killed after they attacked a military camp in Kolofata, in the north of Cameroon.

The military initially said that 143 Boko Haram fighters had died in the over five hours of fighting.

Bakary said the battle ended after the army bombed the attackers, forcing them to retreat to the Nigerian border.

“ However, Cameroon lost one soldier,’’ he said.

The Central African country has deployed over 1,000 troops in its Far North region, where Boko Haram members frequently enter from Nigeria to stage attacks.

Boko Haram, which wanted to create an Islamist state in Nigeria, had killed thousands of people in the country’s north east in 2014.