Boko Haram suffers 'heaviest toll' ever as Cameroon soldiers kill 143 terror thugs

Hundreds of gunmen had crossed the border from Nigeria and attacked a Cameroonian military camp in Kolofata. Boko Haram suffered the losses during a bloody five-hour fight.

The Boko Haram Islamic extremist group suffered its "heaviest toll" ever as Cameroon soldiers killed 143 terror thugs in a lopsided victory, officials said Tuesday.

Hundreds of gunmen had crossed the border from Nigeria and attacked a Cameroonian military camp in Kolofata, Cameroonian Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said. Boko Haram suffered the losses during a bloody five-hour fight.

"It is by far the heaviest toll sustained by the criminal sect Boko Haram since it began launching its barbaric attacks against our land, people and goods," Bakary said.

A Cameroonian corporal was killed and four other soldiers were wounded, he said. Since the fighting took place in a remote border region where terror thugs have abducted foreigners, the death toll could not be confirmed.

Dead bodies of Boko Haram militants

Earlier this month Boko Haram henchmen may have killed as many as 2,000 people during an attack on the Nigerian town of Baga. Amnesty International called it Boko Haram's "deadliest act" yet.

Bodies were still spread out all over the town nine days after the massacre.

"It is still not safe to go and pick them up for burial," local government official Musa Bukar told CNN.

A man injured in a suicide bombing is transported to the General Hospital in northeast Nigerian town of Potiskum this weekend.

    A man injured in a suicide blast is transported at the General Hospital in northeast Nigerian town of Potiskum on January 12, 2015. Four people were killed and 46 injured when two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives outside a mobile phone market in the town on January 11, 2015. Although no one claimed responsibility the attacks bore the hallmark of Boko Haram Islamists who have been increasingly using female suicide bombers in their armed campaign to establish a hard-line Islamic state. Potiskum, the commercial hub of Yobe state has been repeatedly attacked by Boko Haram.

An undated photograph from 2014 made available 13 January 2015 shows members of the Nigerian military manning checkpoints in Maiduguri, North East Nigeria. The Nigerian government said up to 150 people had been killed by Boko Haram in the country's north last week and dismissed widespread reports that 2,000 people had died.

An undated photograph from 2014 made available 13 January 2015 shows members of the Nigerian military patrolling in Maiduguri, North East Nigeria. The Nigerian government said up to 150 people had been killed by Boko Haram in the country's north last week and dismissed widespread reports that 2,000 people had died.

Boko Haram is believed to have killed thousands and driven 1.6 million people from their homes.

It is believed the terror group was responsible for a suicide bombing at a crowded market in Nigeria this weekend that left at least 16 people dead. The female suicide bomber may have been just 10 years old.

The terror thugs abducted nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria last year, and more than 200 remain missing.

With News Wire Services

'Boko Haram' strikes Cameroon, abduct Vice Prime Minister's Wife!

-   Kill Vice PM, Amadou Ali’s Brother

-   Kolofata Lamido (Mayor) & wife captured

-   Cameroon military push back assailants 

Cameroon stepped up its border security in the wake of Boko Haram's kidnapping of over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in April

The Feast of Ramadan announced for today, Monday July 28 may already have turned sour in the mouth of Amadou Ali, Vice Prime Minister and Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Relations with the Assemblies.

Early Sunday morning, the Vice Prime Minister’s residence in Kolofata in the Mayo Sava division, Far North region, witnessed an unprecedented onslaught from the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, leading to the death of Ali’s brother, and the abduction of Ali’s wife and the Lamido of Kolofata.

Issa Tchiroma, Communication Minister and Government’s spokesperson in a press statement Sunday evening confirmed the incident. Tchiroma said details of the attack are still sketchy, but observed that the terrorists numbered over 200.

French Catholic priest Georges Vandenbeusch was taken hostage in northern Cameroon and released over a month later

Unofficial reports say the Cameroonian Elite Corps popularly known as BIR also lost two soldiers in the deadly confrontation. It is not yet clear if Boko Haram lost any of its militants during the fire exchanges.

Boko Haram of recent has intensified its violence on Cameroon. At least three other Cameroonian soldiers and three police officers have been killed by the group as recently as between July 10 and July 28. Their activities have never gone beyond the Far North region where their base is reportedly presently located.

The attack comes at the time Biya has created an Operational Command Unit in the region to tackle the group. Shortly before the creation of the Command Unit, battalions of soldiers had been ferried to the Far North to stem the rising spate of the group’s activities.

Boko Haram loosely translates as "Western education is forbidden"

But interestingly, it would seem as if the group is reinforcing proportionally to government’s fortification.

Sunday’s developments have cast doubts on recent media reports that Ali could be sponsoring Boko Haram against the regime. L’Oeil du Sahel, a biweekly newspaper specialised in exclusive reports on the Grand North had few weeks ago alleged that Ali was one of the brains behind Boko Haram in Cameroon.

However, with the abduction of his wife and the killing of his brother by the same group Ali may now have been vindicated of the report allegations.

By Sylvanus Ezieh, July 27, 2014 from http://cameroonjournal.com/ 

Cameroon sends 22 Boko Haram members to prison

AFP, July 26, 2014 Yaoundé (AFP) - A military court in Cameroon has handed down prison sentences of up to 20 years to 22 Boko Haram members, the country's state broadcaster Crtv reported.

Cameroon military reinforcements drive through Dabanga, northern Cameroon, on June 17, 2014 during operations against Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram (AFP Photo/Reinnier Kaze) - 

The defendants, who were arrested in March after the discovery of a weapons cache, admitted to being part of the Nigerian extremist group at a "public hearing" in the northern town of Maroua, said the report.

They had been charged with the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and of plotting an insurrection.

"Each of the Boko Haram members (was) sentenced to between 10 and 20 years" in prison, said the report, adding that the sentences cannot be appealed.

The trial was reportedly the first of its kind in Cameroon where a large number of members of the radical group have been arrested in the north over the past weeks following attacks on police stations, as well as kidnappings and killings.

The armed movement is seeking to install an extremist Islamic state in Nigeria. It started its bloody insurgency in 2009.

More than 3,000 Nigerians fleeing Boko Haram attacks have taken refuge in the Cameroon town of Fotokol, according to a municipal official.

"We are worried about infiltrations" by the Islamists among the refugees, a police officer in the town said.

Two Cameroon Soldiers Killed in Cross-Border Boko Haram Attack: Official

ndtv, July 26, Yaounde:  A suspected cross-border raid overnight by Nigeria's radical Islamic group Boko Haram killed two Cameroonian soldiers, a Cameroonian security official said on Friday on condition of anonymity.

Boko Haram militants

The attack occurred late Thursday in the border village of Balgaram in northern Cameroon. Eight soldiers posted there fought back, and "in the clash we lost two men," the official said.

Military reinforcements were sent to the area and several troops "entered Nigerian territory with the aim of finding the assailants," the official said.

The armed Boko Haram movement is seeking to install an extremist Islamic state in Nigeria. It started its bloody insurgency in 2009.

In recent days, the group has been blamed for several clashes, abductions and killings targeting troops in northern Cameroon deployed to counter them.

More than 3,000 Nigerians fleeing Boko Haram attacks have taken refuge in the Cameroonian town of Fotokol, a municipal official said.

"We are worried about infiltrations" by the Islamists among the refugees, a police officer in the town said.

Boko Haram kidnap cleric’s children in Cameroon

Area map of the area

Suspected Boko Haram militants have kidnapped two teenaged children of one of Cameroon's most influential Muslim spiritual leaders.

The abduction occurred, July 14, in the town of Limani, on the border with Nigeria's Borno state, which is the home base of the Islamist group.

Cameroon's State Radio announced that 10 heavily armed men crossed over from neighboring Nigeria's Borno State, and ransacked the home of Bieshair Mohaman, the traditional ruler of Limani.  

The Muslim spiritual leader was not home at the time of the attack. But the assailants left with two of the cleric's sons,  Bieshair Hashimir and Bieshair Cavaye Yegue,  both teenage students at the Government Bilingual High School in Limani.

Eyewitnesses said the assailants expressed displeasure with the cleric because he had refused to cooperate with them, and they accused him of giving information concerning their activities to Cameroon's military.

A schoolmate of the teenagers, who was on holiday in Yaounde, said the attacks prove Cameroonians in the north of the country are not safe from Boko Haram.

"What the Boko Haram are doing is not good," Oumarou Ahmadou Mua said. "I feel very bad. I am asking the government to reinforce security, to do something very fast. If not, I think the Boko Haram will kidnap many more children. They [the government] have to do something."

Cameroonians have called on their government to make sure the kidnappers return these latest victims.

A government spokesperson urged all Cameroonians to cooperate with the military in the search for the children.

"I call on you fellow citizens, be it elite, traditional rulers, peasants, motorcycle drivers, taxi drivers," said Issa Tchiroma Bakari, "to watch out and accompany our administrative authorities and defense forces in bringing them the collaboration they need in terms of information, intelligence or denunciation and help them to successfully conduct the mission assigned them."

This is the first reported kidnapping of Cameroonians by the Nigerian Islamist group.

Boko Haram militants have so far kidnapped 10 Chinese road construction engineers, seven French tourists and three Catholic missionaries, in addition to 200 teenage Nigerian school girls.

Each time they have asked for ransom payments before their captives are freed.

Boko Haram strikes Cameroon again!

- 2 gendarmes injured in bloody gun battles

- Several Boko Haram militants feared dead

Bonderie, Far North, Cameroon, July 11 (Cameroon Headlines) – Boko Haram members, said to be many and armed to the teeth, attacked a Gendarme Post in the border locality of Bonderie in the Far North Region of Cameroon.

Boko Haram members

The insurgents attacked the Bonderie Gendarme Post, Thursday, July 10, at midnight firing bullets and rockets. Bonderie is a locality in the Mayo-Sava Division of the Far North Region of Cameroon, about 5km away from the border with Nigeria.

State Media in Cameroon reported that “the walls of the Gendarme Post were perforated, bullet shells shattered everywhere on the ground, offices ransacked and blood coagulated on grass”, a description which is telling of the magnitude of the attack.

Cameroon security forces on high alert!

Cameroonian soldiers stand next to pick up trucks with mounted heavy artillery in Mora, 

northern Cameroon on June 17, 2014

The national Broadcaster reported that the militants made away with one gendarme vehicle, three motorbikes, one gun and ammunition.

The heavy gun battle left one gendarme injured, adding to two the number of injured gendarmes. The other was injured, Tuesday, July 8 after Boko Haram attacked a Gendarme Post in the locality of Vina in the Logon and Shari Division of the Far North Region of Cameroon.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the Boko Haram camp after Thursday’s attack. But it is suspected that several Boko Haram members were killed in the gun battle that lasted for over 30 minutes.

Given quantity of blood that coagulated on the grass at the esplanade of the Gendarme Post, one could conclude that the Boko Haram suffered a great human loss. Boko Haram, it should be noted, carries away its deaths after each attack.

Police could not immediately be reached for comment.