Cameroon: Cameroon launches air strikes against Boko Haram islamic extremists
Cameroon’s government launched its first ever air strikes against Nigerian Islamic extremists to dislodge about 1,000 fighters who had seized a Cameroonian military base, a statement said Monday.
Fighters from Nigeria’s home-grown Boko Haram extremist group attacked five villages in Cameroon, near its northern border with Nigeria, over three days before they over-ran the military base in the same area Sunday, the government said.
Two bombing raids and a heavy firefighting Monday sent the insurgents fleeing from the Achigachia base, it said.
President Paul Biya ordered the first ever air strikes against Boko Haram to respond to “a change of strategy on the part of the assailants,” the statement said. It gave no death toll.