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Boko Haram 'kill 70' in Cameroon border town of Fotokol | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Boko Haram militants have reportedly killed at least 70 people in an attack on the Cameroonian town of Fotokol, on the border with Nigeria. | |
The Islamist militants attacked civilians in their homes and in the town's mosque, local officials said, setting many buildings on fire. | |
The attack comes a day after a regional force said it had driven the militants from a Nigerian town near Fotokol. | |
The Boko Haram insurgency has left thousands dead over the last six years. | |
More than a million people have also been displaced by the militants, who now control a large stretch of land in north-eastern Nigeria. | |
Residents of Fotokol interview by the AFP news agency said the militants had killed many people by slitting their throats. | |
"Boko Haram inflicted so much damage here this morning," Umar Babakalli, a resident of Fotokol, told the agency by telephone. "They have killed dozens of people." | |
The town's main mosque is said to have been torched. | |
The militants were eventually driven back by Cameroonian troops, backed by Chadian forces who had been deployed as part of a regional force in the nearby Nigerian town of Gamboru. | |
On Tuesday, the Chadian army said it had killed more than 200 militants in the battle to recapture Gamboru. However, it added that some of the militants had escaped its offensive. | |
Chadian troops have entered Nigeria and Cameroon to join the offensive against Boko Haram, following widespread criticism of the Nigerian army's failure to curb the insurgency. |