N'Djamena - Three soldiers and 123 Boko Haram militants
were killed when the Islamist group attacked a Chadian
army contingent in northern Cameroon, the Chadian
military said on Friday.

Twelve soldiers were wounded in the attacks staged by the Islamist group on Thursday and Friday near the border town of Fotokol, according to a military statement read out on national television.

Chad sent a convoy of troops and military vehicles into
neighbouring Cameroon on 17 January to deal with the
growing threat Boko Haram poses in the region.

"The enemy was repelled by our defensive forces," the
general staff's statement said, adding that the troops had
"routed" the Islamists in the second attack.
The soldiers were killed by improvised explosive devices,
the statement said.

A senior Cameroonian security source said the Chadian
troops were deployed to the town, which sits opposite a
Nigerian town under Boko Haram control and is also close
to the border with Chad, on Wednesday.

Boko Haram frequently stages attacks on Fotokol from
their base in the Nigerian town of Gamboru, which is just
500 metres away.

Chad has called on countries in the region to form a broad
coalition in the fight against the Islamist group. The country has already deployed its army along its borders as
well as sending the additional contingent to Cameroon.

Chad's President Idriss Deby has also expressed intentions of taking back the strategic Nigerian town of Baga from Boko Haram, situated on Lake Chad.

The African Union called Friday for a regional five-nation
force of 7 500 troops to defeat the "horrendous" rise of
Boko Haram.

The group's uprising has become a regional crisis, with the
four directly affected countries - Cameroon, Chad, Niger
and Nigeria - agreeing along with Benin to boost cooperation to contain the threat and to form a Multinational Joint Task Force.

More than 13 000 people have been killed and more than
one million made homeless by Boko Haram violence since
2009.
- AFP

sltn:
Am so surprise that those little nations are the ones fighting our own battle. Smh