BOKO HARAM: 246 Nigerian soldiers, customs officers flee to Cameroon

The Cameroon Radio Television reported on Wednesday that 246 Nigerian soldiers and customs officers fled to the far north region of Cameroon during a gun battle with Boko Haram insurgents.

About 480 Nigerian soldiers fighting the sect members had on August 25 ran into Cameroon in what Nigerian military authorities described as “tactical manoeuvre”

Although the radio/tv station did not name the Nigerian border town where the battle started, it reported that 40 insurgents who also fled to Fotokol, the Cameroonian side of the border, were killed when they also engaged the gendarmes in combat.

Two vehicles belonging to the militants were destroyed while a gendarme was injured during the three-hour battle which took place on Monday.

It said the 246 Nigerian soldiers and customs officers had been officially handed over to the commander of the Nigerian military operations in the area.

The radio/ tv station quoted official sources as having said the clash was a fallout of the fighting between Nigerian forces and the insurgents at Bama.

The fighting, according to the report, has led to the influx of refugees into the far North region of Cameroon.