nigeria

Col. Jacob Kodji said Tuesday that hundreds of fighters entered the border town of Ashigashia in Cameroon early Tuesday, shooting into the air. He said the insurgents retreated when reinforcements arrived to back the Cameroonian soldiers.

Col. Kodji said two soldiers were seriously wounded and 10 attackers were killed. He said some arrests were made. He said no civilian casualties were reported.

Heavily armed attackers came from Nigeria into the villages of Tchakarmari and Kangaleri early in the morning on trucks, said Tchakarmari village chief Kadzamare Amin.

"They burned at least 15 houses and slaughtered six men and three women whose corpses we are still to bury," he told The Associated Press from the area that is less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Nigeria's Borno State, where Islamic extremist group Boko Haram regularly stages attacks. He said that he saw dozens being taken.

Thursday's appointment comes as the West African nation's new president promised deeper collaboration with neighboring states in the fight against Islamic extremism.

President Muhammadu Buhari headed home Thursday after two days of talks in Yaounde, Cameroon, focused on Boko Haram.

Its attacks have spread across Nigeria's borders and forced tens of thousands of refugees to flee to neighboring states.