17 Boko Haram fighters killed in north battles

At least 17 Islamist militants were killed in battles with Cameroonian and Nigerian troops in an area near their joint border this week, a Cameroon minister said.

Special troops from a multinational task force also took part in the Sunday and Monday offensive in Achigachia, Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said early Tuesday in a statement on national radio.

His announcement came hours after four suicide bombers struck a northern Cameroon market, killing at least 32 people.

“They had turned the locality into an infiltration corridor for suicide-bombers,” Bakary said of the Boko Haram fighters. Three Cameroonian soldiers suffered minor injuries in the offensive, he said.

Thousands of people have been killed in Nigeria as Boko Haram militants’ attempt to violently impose their version of Islamic law enters its seventh year. The bloodshed has spilled over to Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

At least 86 people were wounded in Monday’s bombings in Bodo, near the Nigerian border, which were carried out by four young women, Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North region, said by phone.

A humanitarian response plan for Cameroon this year seeks to raise $282 million to cover the needs of about 1.1 million people, including those displaced by conflict, the United Nations said on Monday.

The West African country is sheltering people from violence in Nigeria and neighboring Central African Republic, as well as Cameroonians who’ve been internally displaced.