MAROUA
The Cameroonian army has killed 107 members of Nigeria's Boko Haram militant group in Cameroon's Far North Region on the Nigerian border, Defense Minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo'o said Friday.
According to Ngo'o, the Cameroonian army engaged in two simultaneous clashes with Boko Haram militants in the towns of Amchide and Limani near the border with Nigeria.
The clashes first erupted late Wednesday when a group of heavily-armed Boko Haram fighters stormed the two towns with armored vehicles, the minister said in a statement.
"The fighting lasted for two hours before a truce was reached. In the early hours of Thursday, fighting resumed with defense forces having forced the attackers to retreat to the border," Ngo'o added.
The clashes, he said, had left 107 insurgents and eight Cameroonian troops dead. Seven other soldiers were injured, he added.
Cameroonian troops also destroyed the attackers' vehicles and seized a number of weapons, he added, asserting that calm had since been restored in the two towns.
Nigeria's Boko Haram militant group has been blamed for several earlier cross-border attacks in Cameroon.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden" in Nigeria's local Hausa language, first emerged in the early 2000s preaching against government misrule and corruption.
The group later became violent, however, following the death of its leader in 2009 while in police custody.
In the five years since, the shadowy sect has been blamed for numerous attacks on places of worship and government institutions, along with thousands of deaths.
In a major development Friday, the Nigerian government announced a cease-fire with Boko Haram.
Along with the cessation of armed hostilities, the deal calls for the safe return of over 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram over six months ago in exchange for the release of detained group members.
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