Northern Cameroon officials have reportedly requested extra troops from their government and forces from neighbouring Nigeria and Chad to be deployed to their border after new Boko Haram strikes killed at least 12 people, including six soldiers, on Tuesday.

Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, which shares a border with Chad and Nigeria, revealed on Wednesday that hundreds of heavily armed Islamist radicals had infiltrated the dangerous Lake Chad region, attacking, plundering, and spreading fear.

According to Voice of America on Wednesday, Mr Bakari said President Paul Biya ordered officials and troops in Cameroon’s Far North region to hold an emergency crisis meeting and ensure that armed Islamist extremists infiltrating the volatile Lake Chad region are stopped.

He said Mr Biya ordered the crisis meeting after several hundred militants killed three soldiers, two customs officers and two civilians in Tuesday’s surprise attacks on Cameroon government troops stationed in the northern towns of Mora and Zigague (they share a border with Nigeria and Chad).

Mr Bakari said though weakened, Boko Haram was still attacking communities to kill their opponents and to steal cattle, food and money.

The Cameroonian military said the troops found five other civilian corpses in the bush near Zigague and several dozen houses and government buildings destroyed by the insurgents.

Military officials claimed soldiers killed several insurgents along the border with Nigeria and Chad but gave no details.