• Soldiers kill 27 insurgents in border clash

Cameroon’s army has killed 27 members of Boko Haram near a northern town, state radio said yester­day, in a sign of growing cross-border activity by the militants. The Boko Haram fighters crossed the border into Cam­eroon earlier this week, after attacking a military base and police station in Borno state and apparently sending some 480 Nigerian troops retreating across the frontier.

“Cameroon soldiers have killed 27 Boko Haram ele­ments during an attack in a locality near Fotokol in the far-north,” state radio CRTV said, adding that the deaths oc­curred on Monday and Tues­day. There was no word on any Cameroonian casualties. A Cameroonian soldier in the region said the militants had been pushed back into Nige­ria, with calm returning to the area yesterday.

bokoKiller-useIn recent weeks, Boko Ha­ram, which is seeking to carve out a de facto Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, has stepped up attacks in Cameroon, lead­ing the central African country to increase deployments along its jungle border.

But Cameroon has not al­ways been successful in fend­ing off Boko Haram raids. President Paul Biya dismissed two senior army officers last month following attacks in which at least seven people were killed and the wife of the vice prime minister was kid­napped.(SUN)