|
 Chad has deployed 2,500 troops as part of a regional effort to
take on the militant group, which has been fighting for five years
to create an Islamist emirate in northern Nigeria. An estimated
10,000 people died in the region last year.
Chad's army also destroyed more than a dozen vehicles equipped with
heavy weapons in the battle, and 100 motorcycles used by the
militants, the army high command said in a statement on Wednesday.
There was no independent confirmation of its claim.
Boko Haram fighters also attacked the town of Fotokol in Cameroon on
Wednesday but were repelled, a Chadian military source reached on
the front said by telephone.
Cameroonian Information Minister Issa Tchiroma said the fighting in
Fotokol had lasted several hours.
"The insurgents have been driven out. They tried to surprise us
because the Chadian troops who were in Fotokol had crossed over to
Nigeria," he said.
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The attack represents the latest cross-border incursion by Boko
Haram, who operate near Nigeria's borders with Niger, Chad and
Cameroon.
(Reporting by Madjiasra Nako; Additional reporting by Bate Felix and
David Lewis in Dakar; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by
Kevin Liffey)
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