Boko Haram killed nearly 1,200 people since 2013: Cameroon
Issa Tchiroma Bakary told
reporters that the group had staged 315 raids in the border region
during this period and carried out 32 suicide bombings.
"In
total, 1,098 civilians, 67 of our soldiers and three police officials
have been killed in these barbaric attacks by the Boko Haram terrorist
group," Bakary said.
Since July last year, Cameroon's far north
has been hit by a series of attacks blamed on Boko Haram, which has
pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.This year, the number of attacks in the region has increased to a near daily basis with simultaneous incursions in some areas.
"In the face of such unjustified and gratuitous harrassment our defence and security forces have inflicted heavy losses on the enemy," he said, adding that the group had been so weakened that it was now taking recourse to bomb attacks, often staged by women or girls.
Since
late November, the Cameroon army has carried out operations in several
border areas aimed at weakening Nigerian jihadists active in the region.
Boko
Haram in the past year stepped up cross-border attacks in Niger, Chad
and Cameroon while continuing shooting and suicide assaults on markets,
mosques and other mostly civilian targets within Nigeria itself.
The group has increasingly targeted imams and traditional chiefs for their opposition to the Islamists.
Cameroon
has meanwhile banned the Islamic veil in a bid to pre-empt suicide
bombings staged by attackers wearing the full-face veil.
Boko
Haram's six-year campaign for a hardline Islamic state in northeast
Nigeria has killed at least 17,000 people and made more than 2.6 million
others homeless.
Despite the
offensives launched by regional forces, the group maintains strongholds
in areas that are difficult to access, such as the Sambisa forest, the
Mandara mountains and the numerous islands of Lake Chad.
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