The Cameroon army, in conjunction with a regional task force, rescued 900 hostages that were being held captive by Boko Haram, killing 100 members and arresting another 100 in the process, Cameroon's defence minister claimed Wednesday, according to AFP.
Cameroon's defence minister Joseph Beti Assomo claimed that in addition to rescuing the hostages and neutralizing the extremists, troops also seized "large supplies of arms and munitions as well as black-and-white Islamic State flags." The group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State back in May.
The sweep operation was carried out from Nov. 27 to Nov. 29 in the Sambisa Forest region around Lake Chad, which is near the northern border of Cameroon and Nigeria. The troops involved in the operation were part of a regional task force dedicated to combating Boko Haram, which also involves troops from Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Benin, and is 8,700-strong, according to The Guardian.
The multinational hostages from Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad are being reunited with their families and provided with trauma care, said Cameroon's government spokesperson Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the Associated Press reported. It is unknown whether any of the over 200 girls that were abducted from a government school in Chibok, Nigeria in 2014 are among the freed hostages.
Amnesty International and the United Nations have reported that around 20,000 people have been killed in the region since Boko Haram's uprising six years ago, and attacks have expanded into countries that have contributed troops to the task force. Two teenage suicide bombers managed to kill six people in Waza, Cameroon Tuesday, and a third was killed before she was able to detonate her explosive. Bakary claimed that the hostages held at a Boko Haram camp were being trained as suicide bombers and fighters before they were freed by the troops.
