Cameroon has sent warplanes into action against Nigerian Boko Haram fighters for the first time, after the large force of jihadists crossed the border and seized a military camp, the government said.President Paul Biya personally ordered Sunday's air strike, which forced the insurgents to flee the camp at Assighasia, Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said in a statement late Sunday.
"Fighter planes went into action for the first time since the start of the conflict" on the Cameroonian side of the frontier, after several months of deadly cross-border Boko Haram raids, Bakary added.
"After two strikes and heavy fire... the assailants fled the Assighasia camp... losing several fighters," he said.
Military operations were still under way, he added, saying that "the toll from combat will be released once the operational evaluation is complete".
The extremists of Boko Haram, which roughly means "Western education is forbidden", have made frequent raids into neighboring Cameroon since they began their insurgency in northern Nigeria in 2009.