YAOUNDE, June 10 — Over 800 militants of the extremist group Boko Haram were killed during recent operations on the fringes of Lake Chad by troops of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), the commander of the force has said.
The operation dubbed “Lake Sanity” lasted for 75 days and included troops from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger, said Major General Abdul Kalifa Ibrahim, commander of MNJTF.
“So far over 800 Boko Haram criminals have been neutralized or killed. Over a quarter of these people were killed as a result of the work of sector one of MNJTF, which is the Cameroonian sector. I find the discipline and the hard work of the Cameroonian sector to be one of the best,” Ibrahim told reporters during a press conference Wednesday evening.
“(Almost) three months operation, not one Cameroon soldier has died. This is a record,” he added during the press conference that presented the battle-damage assessment of the operation.
He said the MNJTF’s combined ground and amphibious operations have put a lot of pressure on the extremists, attacking their strongholds and making movement difficult for them.
MNJTF is a joint military effort created by countries including Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Benin to fight Boko Haram and the ISIS affiliate – West African Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), which threaten the stability of these countries and the entire region. (Xinhua)
