MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, April 17 (Reuters) – A joint military force of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon said on Sunday it had killed more than 100 Islamist insurgents, including 10 commanders, in recent weeks as it steps up a ground offensive and Aryan.
Troops ventured deep into insurgent-held enclaves in the Lake Chad region and recovered several weapons, food and drugs, Multinational Joint Operational Force spokesman Colonel Muhammad Dole said.
More than 100 terrorists were neutralized, including more than 10 high-ranking commanders, following airstrikes carried out in the islands of Lake Chad, on the basis of information, added the colonel.
Muhammad Dole did not specify the period covered by the operation but said 18 soldiers were injured by improvised explosive devices planted by insurgents.
The armed Islamist movement Boko Haram and its splinter group Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) have been fighting the Nigerian army for more than ten years in a conflict that has affected neighboring states.
The Islamist insurgency is centered in northeastern Nigeria and has claimed thousands of lives, while pushing millions of people from their homes to find refuge in camps. (Report Lanre Ola; French version Kate Entringer)