Boko Haram attacks rampant at Cameroon borders

With the security measures put in place in the northern part of the country, the Boko Haram Takfiri militants activities in northern Cameroon seem to have gone down but for recent attacks.

According to reports, the armed militants opened fire on soldiers in the border town of Bonderi, in Cameroon’s Far North region on Friday, July 11. A Cameroonian soldier and a number of militants were wounded in the half-hour exchange of gunfire. The militants reportedly fled back to Nigeria following the cross-border raid.

It was the second of such attacks by Boko Haram in the region over the past few days. On July 8, militants attacked a border post in the town of Zina and took away vehicles, guns and ammunition.

In May, President Paul Biya of Cameroon, backed by four other African leaders, declared war on Boko Haram in response to the atrocities committed by the Takfiri group. The declaration came after attacks and the taking of Chinese hostages.

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly gun and bomb attacks in various parts of Nigeria since 2009. Boko Haram – which means “Western education is forbidden” – says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government.

In line with these attacks, aid and infrastructure projects in Cameroon’s Far North region have been suspended due to high levels of insecurity caused by the Islamist group Boko Haram, reports AlertNet, a branch of the Thompson Reuters Foundation.

According to reports, with much relief and development work by the government and international organizations to help protect people from climate impacts now on hold, living conditions are becoming precarious for the Far North’s impoverished population during the rainy season. On a visit to the area last month, Cameroon’s minister of communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakari, said local people and the authorities are paying the cost of cross-border Boko Haram attacks and abductions, which have led to an atmosphere of fear and insecurity.

Boko Haram, which evolved from a clerical movement, is fighting for an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria. The insurgents’ behavior – especially killing civilians and kidnapping girls – has provoked international condemnation.

The government of Cameroon has increased its military presence in the region near the group’s base in northern Nigeria, to protect people from Boko Haram’s violence. Its activities in Cameroon are thought to be motivated by the prospect of financial gain from ransom demands, the minister said.

The group is thought to be behind the kidnappings of a French family, three foreign priests and a nun in the past 18 months, with Reuters having seen evidence that a ransom of over $3 million U.S. dollars was reportedly paid to Boko Haram to free the family of seven.

“The attacks and killing of innocent persons in the Far North region are a serious cause for concern. People can no longer go about their activities as before, while many development activities in the region have been temporarily halted for fear of being ambushed,” Bakari said.

“This is really dangerous because we all know how vulnerable this region is, plagued with high malnutrition and poverty due to its extreme climate,” he added.

Cherif Musa, a local council worker in Maroua, told Thomson Reuters Foundation that people have become wary of staying out late due to the risk of attacks. Bars are shut after 9pm and gatherings after that time are banned, he added.

Meanwhile, as violence in north-eastern Nigeria causes massive displacement, thousands of families have fled across the border into Cameroon where the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is providing humanitarian assistance despite insecurity and logistical challenges.

So far, according to the United Nations agency, about 650,000 people have been displaced from the three volatile states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa in the North-East.It is the first time that WFP has operated in locations so close to the border with Nigeria, where the security situation is volatile.

According to WFP, close to 8,000 Nigerians have fled since May into the remote northernmost region of Cameroon from the northern Nigerian states of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno.

Local communities were said to have been providing food and shelter to the refugees, but food stocks were said to be running low and many of the newcomers, the WFP reported were already undernourished.