The Cameroon army has killed not less than 143 Boko Haram fighters, the highest number of the Islamist sect to have fallen in single encounter since the group began attacks in the country.
The government spokesman, Issa Bakary, made the announcement on Tuesday in Yaoundé.
Issa said that the insurgents were killed after they attacked a military camp in Kolofata, in the northern part of Cameroon.
The military initially said that 143 Boko Haram fighters had died in the over five hours of fighting.
Bakary said the battle ended after the army bombed the attackers, forcing them to retreat to the Nigerian border.
After the encounter, Cameroonians reportedly lost one soldier in the fight.
The Central African country has deployed over 1,000 troops in its Far North region, where Boko Haram members frequently enter from Nigeria to stage attacks.
Boko Haram, which wanted to create an Islamist state in Nigeria, had killed thousands of people in the country’s north east in 2014.
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