-The Cameroonian army
killed 143 Boko Haram fighters
who attacked a military base in
the northern town of Kolofata on
Monday, in what the government
said was the militants' heaviest
loss yet on its territory.
One Cameroonian soldier also
lost his life in the clashes,
Communications Minister and
government spokesman Issa
Tchiroma Bakary said in a
statement read out on television
and radio.
The toll was "the heaviest loss
yet" suffered by Boko Haram on
Cameroonian soil, he said, and
comes at a time of fears of
increased cross-border raids by
the Nigeria-based group into
Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
The spokesperson said the attack
began in the early hours when
"several hundred" Islamist
fighters took advantage of thick
fog to cross over from Nigeria
and tried to storm the town's
military base, where an elite army
unit is stationed.
Intense fighting
Intense fighting erupted near the
base, lasting for more than five
hours before the attackers fled
back towards the border, the
spokesman said, adding that the
army had seized a significant
arsenal of heavy weaponry from
the militants.
A local source said residents fled
"as soon as people heard the
first gunfire" in the town.
The attack on Kolofata comes
after the group's leader
Abubakar Shekau vowed last
week in a YouTube message to
hit back at Cameroon for sending
warplanes into action against the
fighters in December after they
seized a military camp.
Monday's offensive was the first
by Boko Haram on the town
since the army's elite Rapid
Intervention Battalion was
deployed to defend the area after
deadly attacks in 2014.
Several people were killed in an
attack on Kolofata in July and 27
people, including the wife of a
deputy prime minister, were held
hostage for several weeks by the
militants.