Boko Haram Terrorise Cameroon, Recruit Locals

Maroua, Cameroon - Residents and authorities of Cameroon's Far North Region report that Nigerian terrorist sect Boko Haram is actively recruiting fighters in the area.

Over a hundred suspected Boko Haram insurgents have been apprehended in the said region of Nigeria's neighbouring country since 2012. However, security officials disclosed that suspects are often released due to lack of evidence.

Boko Haram are considered to be yet another religious group in Cameroon, locals say, so many Muslims leave Nigeria to preach and make promises to Cameroonian youths, sometimes offering them money.

Fighting in the name of Islam

Mustapha, 17, was taken to Nigeria by one of the Boko Haram preachers. He was, however, brought back home to Cameroon, blindfolded, after he failed to cope with the military training.

He says the sect recruiters promised his father he would return home rich and a "great Muslim". He was the youngest member of a group of eight boys who came both from Nigeria (Maiduguri, Borno State) and Cameroon. Mustapha says they were studying the Quran and listened to lectures about fighting in the name of Islam. The boy says he sustained multiple injuries in the course of military training in the mountains which ruled him unfit for combat.

Warning letters

Local authorities say there are similar ethnic communities in Cameroon's Far North and northeastern Nigeria who have family on either side of the border, making undetected cross-border movement easy. This makes it difficult to prove that Boko Haram cross the borders to recruit new members.

Although Nigerian military managed to push the insurgents to remote areas of the country, their attacks have become more fierce and frequent, affecting Cameroonian villages bordering northeastern Nigeria. The subsequent insecurity in the Far North Region has crippled the trade. Local traders add that villages received letters ordering to stop alcohol sales along the border.

Local security agencies suspect that Cameroonians aid the insurgents, as the latter have a good mastery of the terrain. They have confirmed that the sect would often send warnings to the communities.

A curfew has been imposed upon the northern Cameroon communities and motorbike traffic at night has also been forbidden as the insurgents use these means of transportation to commit crimes.

Security officials admit that the Boko Haram sect are heavily armed with rocket launchers and grenades, but add that Cameroonian authorities are doing everything possible to track the terrorists down.

Source: Legit.ng