Cameroonian special forces killed 162 Boko Haram militants during a
raid to regain control of Goshi, a town in northeastern Nigeria.
During the three-day operation that began Feb. 11, the Cameroonian
force freed about 100 captives held by the militants, including
Nigerians and Cameroonians. Two members of Cameroon’s military were
killed, including a senior commander.
“The town of Goshi in Nigeria was formally identified as one of the
Boko Haram posts, hosting factories for the manufacturing of bombs and
mines,” said Cameroon’s communication minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary.
The town also served as a hub for holding the teenagers Boko Haram used
for its suicide bombing missions, Bakary said. In the course of the
attack, the soldiers dismantled four mine factories, burned down a
training center and two vehicles, and seized at least five readied
mines, hundreds of explosive holders, suicide vests, and triggers.
“Anything that can be regarded as a blow to Boko Haram, which will
involve elimination of its resources for its terrorist campaign, is a
good sign,” said Martin Ewi, a terrorism expert with the Institute for
Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa.
In May, Nigeria and neighboring Chad, Niger, Cameroon, and Benin
established the 8,700-member Multinational Joint Task Force to combat
the Islamic terror group. While the joint military operation
successfully recaptured Goshi, experts say it’s an insufficient force to
completely defeat the extremist group.
“The use of peacekeeping to respond to terrorism is not really an
ultimate tool to combat and defeat terrorists such as Boko Haram,” Ewi
said. “It would have to be combined with other counterterrorism
strategies.”
Since the start of its six-year insurgency, Boko Haram has killed more
than 20,000 people and displaced more than 2.1 million people within
Nigeria. Attacks across Nigeria’s borders increased last year in line
with the creation of the multinational task force.
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