Cameroon Deploys 3,000 Troops Near Nigerian Border
According to the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, Cameroon authorities have deployed troops numbering 3,000 to the far northern region of the country bordering Nigeria to fighting against Boko Haram insurgents.
The Cameroon authorities said it has ordered stop-and-search on any motorist to ensure safety in the region.
The mobilisation comes two weeks after a summit in Paris that brought together the heads of state of several countries bordering Nigeria, including Cameroon’s Paul Biya, who described Boko Haram as a “serious threat” to the whole region.
Leaders at the meeting agreed to cooperate on a joint “war plan”, at a time when Cameroun was still considered a weak link.
Already, small units of soldiers riding armoured cars patrol the main roads and smaller secondary routes, while fighter planes and combat helicopters keep watch from the skies.
* Boko Haram insurgents
The country’s northern border region is thought to be a centre for smuggling weapons to the armed extremists, with Yaounde accused by others of failing to act against the Islamists even on its own soil.
In a sign that Cameroon is determined to take action, last Thursday, about 30 Nigerians suspected of belonging to Boko Haram were picked up and handed over to Nigerian authorities.
And just last weekend, Cameroonian troops freed two Italian priests and a Canadian nun, kidnapped on April 4 in the small parish of Tchere, near Maroua.
* Cameroonian soldiers
It was gathered that the incursion of the terror group into Cameroun has led to regular vehicle searches and identity checks by the Camerounian army.
With his helmet tightly strapped on and wearing a bulletproof vest, a soldier systematically stops traffic on the road between Maroua, the regional capital, and Kousseri, to the north, a machine-gun mounted on a pick-up truck nearby.
“We are looking for weapons, ammunition, drugs,” the soldier told Agence France Presse (AFP), asking not to be named.
In the past few days, Cameroonian authorities say they have deployed an impressive military force to the far North region in the wake of bloody raids and a series of kidnappings of foreigners.
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is forbidden,” has killed over four thousands of people since 2009 in its fight to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
The Islamist group caused an international outcry in April when its abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State.
Source: Legit.ng
