CAMEROON Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakari accused Boko Haram fighters yesterday of having shot or burned to death about 90 civilians and wounded 500 in ongoing fighting on the border with Nigeria.

He said that 800 extremists attacking the town of Fotokol had “burned churches, mosques and villages and slaughtered youth who resisted joining them to fight Cameroonian forces.”

The insurgents from Nigeria had also looted livestock and food in the fighting that began on Wednesday and is continuing.

Military spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck said that Boko Haram was using civilians as shields, making it difficult to confront them, although reinforcements had arrived in Fotokol.

Hundreds of insurgents were killed on Wednesday compared to the loss of 13 Chadian and six Cameroonian troops, Defence Minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo said yesterday.

At least 91 civilians have been killed and most of more than 500 wounded people could not be immediately taken to the hospitals, he added.