Belinga Eboutou on a mission to calm soldiers on the front

The day after the sacking of two military leaders of the Cameroonian army in the Far North (Monday 25 May), Paul Biya has sent his closest collaborator to go inquire the morale in the front of the war against Boko Haram.

Among the issues reviewed by the mission are undistributed war premiums problems and misappropriation of food aid by some military leaders at the expense of the units under their authority, says Xinhua, the Chinese news agency. All of which could constitute the reasons why Paul Biya dismissed Colonel Ernest Mbilla of his duties as Commander of the Gendarmerie fourth region based in the Far North region, Lieutenant Colonel Nkoumou Nkoumou Zechariah the fourth Battalion Commander Joint command and military support also in the Far North region.

The delegation visited Kousseri on Wednesday, a crossroads town bordering the Chadian capital N'Djamena. Their objective was to inquire about the progress of the war against Boko Haram and the state of morale, which combine reinforcement operations of the Chadian forces since mid-January.

The head of state is concerned about the morale of soldiers being lowered because of "latent tensions" in the ranks. The meeting this morning is to motivate the troops, and especially consider information revealed in recent days and stating the intention of the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, who is said to be "seriously injured" from a recent offensive.

The Xinhua revealed on its website that "according to several sources within the army, the jihadist leader who is now hiding in a forest of Lake Chad where he would be treated with the help of his second wife, a Nigerian nurse trained in Kousseri, would direct his terrorist acts against Cameroon at the instigation of Yaoundé's power." This information is taken very seriously by Yaounde.