By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent, Fotokol
The battle against Boko Haram is intensifying in the run-up to the delayed Nigerian elections.
The terror group appears to be mounting more attacks especially on neighbouring border towns along the country's frontier.
Authorities who put back the elections by six weeks because of the threat from the extremist group, have vowed to crush all Boko Haram camps between now and polling day on March 28.
On Saturday, Nigeria's military repelled an attack by scores of Boko Haram militants in the northeastern town of Gombe. As the insurgents retreated, they warned residents not to take part in the elections.
A five-Nation group of West African countries are now involved in the fight against the extremists. Nigeria has been joined by Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin.
The Sky News team of me, cameraman Garwen McLuckie and producer Nick Ludlam gained rare access to Cameroon's elite Rapid Intervention Battalion - known as BIR - and joined their troops in the far north of the country.
We travelled with them to the town of Fotokol, which continues to be the focus of fighting.
Parts of Fotokol have been torn apart - with rows of stalls, homes and vehicles torched. Survivors talk of men being sprayed with bullets as they rose from praying in one of the mosques.
We saw the walls of the mosque, peppered with holes. One of those who carried the bodies out said 37 men were killed there.
Fotokol is just one of the towns on the border with Nigeria to be invaded and terrorised by the Boko Haram extremist group - and its inhabitants are traumatised.
One inhabitant told us he had been too scared to leave his household since the attack five days earlier. Nine members of his household had been killed shortly after early morning prayers.
The stakes are high for the Cameroon military posted along the frontier with their much richer, bigger, more powerful Nigerian neighbour.
They have now been bolstered by troops from Chad, but the battle with the militants is just as fierce. And if they fail, the consequences are devastating - as Fotokol found out.
As we arrived in the area, more Chadian troops were preparing to advance into Nigeria, telling us there was a battle still raging over the bridge separating Cameroon from their neighbour.
One Chadian soldier who spoke to us told us the fighting was "very dangerous and hard".
"We don't even have time to sleep," he said.
"The fighting goes on through the night even."
The Cameroon soldiers are fiercely dedicated to their task.
"We will not let Boko Haram enter our country," said one commander.
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Gallery: Profile Of Boko Haram Leader
Abubakar Shekau is the leader of Boko Haram. He took control of the Islamist group after the death of founder Mohammed Yusuf in 2009
Little is known about him, although he was born in Shekau village in the northeastern state of Yobe and is now thought to be in his early 40s
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