Boko Haram, now calling itself Islamic State West Africa, carried out a wave of deadly suicide bombings as a multilateral military alliance prepares to take the field against the jihadists.
After twin deadly suicide bombings by two women wearing burqas, authorities in Northern Cameroon have banned women from wearing burqas and face-covering veils.
Amnesty International urged Cameroon to end the six-month detention of 84 children being held after raids on Koranic schools in a crackdown on Boko Haram.
Advance units of a thousands-strong Chadian intervention force arrived in Cameroon to fight Boko Haram rebels. A critical oil pipeline passes through the war-torn border.
Up to 2,000 are feared dead in an ongoing massacre after Boko Haram seized Baga, a town on Nigeria's border with Chad in Borno state. The town was reportedly "razed to the ground."
In Nigeria's northwest, traditional hunters in rural areas, armed only with bows and arrows, are organizing patrols to protect their villages against Boko Haram.
Boko Haram is quickly seizing more territory in Nigeria's northeast and now threatens the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, sending thousands fleeing into Cameroon and Niger.
Escalating attacks by Boko Haram militants from across the Nigerian border have led to curfews, fear and privation in Cameroon's remote and impoverished Far North Region.
Authorities in Cameroon have beefed up border controls in the Far North region to guard against infiltration by Boko Haram as civilians flee the growing war in Nigeria.
