Boko Haram 'Bomb Factory' Discovered amid Chad Troop Movement on Cameroon Border

Chadian troops deployed to fight Boko Haram in Nigeria have returned to Cameroon, where they are expected to be regroup for fresh offensives in border areas, military sources said on Friday.

Some 2,500 troops deployed as part of a regional force against the Islamist militants have in recent weeks retaken the towns of Gamboru and Dikwa, in Borno state, northeast Nigeria.

A military source based in Cameroon's far north region said the soldiers had now crossed back over the border after the offensives.

"Some of them are in Fotokol (across the bridge from Gamboru), others have gone up to Maltam," 20 kilometers (13 miles) away, he told AFP.

The soldiers in Maltam will leave for Limani and Amchide further south, the source added, without specifying a time frame.

Several Chadian security sources in the capital, N'Djamena, confirmed that the troops would head south on the border between Cameroon and Nigeria.

The Nigerian town of Banki is on the other side of the border from Amchide and Limani and has been in Boko Haram control for several months,

On October 15 last year, the group launched a large-scale attack against the military base in Amchide with heavy weapons, including a tank, killing at least eight Cameroonian soldiers.

The army claimed at the time that 107 Boko Haram fighters were killed.

According to the Cameroonian military source, soldiers from both countries will join forces in a major operation against Boko Haram in Banki and the nearby Mandara mountains.

Gwoza, which was declared part of a caliphate by Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau last year and is considered to be the group's base, is nearby.

Boko Haram fighters have recently been seen grouping en masse in Gwoza, according to witnesses.

Meanwhile, Nigeria's military said on Friday that it had uncovered a Boko Haram bomb-making factory in the northeastern town of Buni Yadi after soldiers retook the town from the insurgents.

Islamist fighters captured the town in Yobe state in August last year as the group seized swathes of territory in the crisis-hit northeast.

The military announced that it had wrested back control last Saturday.

Defense spokesman Chris Olukolade said that search operations in the area led to the discovery of the bomb-making factory manufacturing improvised explosive devices or IEDs.

"A large quantity of IEDs, including those commonly used by suicide bombers were recovered from the site," he added in an emailed statement.

"The factory, which was located in a fertilizer company, has also converted some of the materials therein for production of all types of IEDs. 

"Troops are still evacuating the materials which include a large quantity of suicide bomber vests from the facility to their base."

Boko Haram has increasingly used suicide attacks in its six-year campaign to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.

Women and young girls with explosives vests strapped to their bodies have been sent into crowded markets and bus stations, causing mass casualties.

Roadside bombs -- a tactic seen widely in Iraq and Afghanistan by al-Qaida-linked militants -- have also been found buried in the ground.

Olukolade said four soldiers were killed by IEDs during the operation to retake Buni Yadi and the advance was delayed because the devices were planted on the road leading into the town.

Nigeria's military, assisted by soldiers from Niger, Chad and Cameroon, as well as South African mercenaries, have made major gains against Boko Haram in recent weeks.

The operation is designed to secure and stabilize the northeast in time for elections to take place in two weeks' time at which President Goodluck Jonathan is seeking re-election.

Olukolade said the discovery of the bomb-making factory "is expected to degrade the capability of terrorists in the production of explosives, which they have been using lavishly in the area."