More than 5,000 hostages freed from Boko Haram base in week-long operation on Nigeria-Cameroon border

More than 5,000 hostages, mainly women, children and the elderly, have been freed from a Boko Haram base in a week-long military operation on the Nigeria-Cameroon border.

A Cameroon minister said multinational forces freed the captives and “completely destroyed” the militants’ hideout in the mountains along the border.

Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said the hostages were mainly women, children and elderly people in a news conference on Wednesday.

On Tuesday it was reported that at least 60 Boko Haram fighters have been killed by Cameroonian and Nigerian soldiers in operations since the end of January.

Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people, left 2.6 million homeless and more than five million refugees in urgent need of food aid.