An Air Force attack helicopter
At least five Cameroonian soldiers died on Sunday after a military chopper crashed near the Nigerian border.
A government official stated that among the dead is a top commander leading the troops fighting the Boko Haram insurgency, General Jacob Kodji.
Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of Far North region in Cameroon, confirmed the deaths, saying the helicopter crashed in Bogo village killing three top military officers and two crew members.
The military officials are stated to have been on an inspection mission in Waza National Park as part of the operation to battle the Nigerian Boko Haram Islamists.
Africa Review reports that the circumstances that led to the crash are yet to be established.
A regional force has been fighting the Boko Haram terrorists who have spread their brutal insurgency from Nigeria into neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Kodji was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General by President Paul Biya in August 2015 and appointed to head the forces fighting against Boko Haram.
Cameroon has intensified operations along its northern border after Nigeria announced in December that its troops had dislodged the jihadists from its Sambisa Forest bastion.
Cameroon’s Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary told a press conference in Yaoundé last week that the military offensive against Boko Haram had made major progress, with scores of jihadists killed and hundreds of hostages freed since December 2016.
Since Boko Haram launched its deadly insurgency in northern Nigeria in 2009, at least 20,000 people have been killed and some 2.6 million displaced in the violence.