Boko Haram on Sunday killed three people and kidnapped 80, many of them children, in a raid on villages in northern Cameroon. After years of rampaging unchecked across its home base in Nigeria, Africa’s version of Islamic State is now terrorizing neighboring countries.
By the next day Cameroonian troops had freed 24 of the captives in a counterattack, pursuing Boko fighters back to Nigeria across the porous frontier, according to Cameroon’s Defense Ministry. Troops from Chad are also assisting in the anti-Boko fight.
The insurgency launched by Boko Haram—the name means “Western education Is forbidden”—is stretching into its sixth year, and the group has distinguished itself as a resilient fighting force. Its kidnapping of some 300 Nigerian school girls triggered an international campaign last summer. The girls weren’t brought back, and many are believed to have been married off to Boko’s jihadists. Does anyone remember Michelle Obama ’s #BringBackOurGirls?