Cameroon’s B/Haram crusade incurs circa 340bln –IMF

The military campaign against Boko Haram, in the Far North of Cameroon over the last two years has already cost between FCFA 170 billion and CFA340 billion to the government, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimate said on Tuesday.

In a report on the economic outlook on Sub-Saharan Africa published at the end of April, the IMF said the terrorist threat, which is concentrated in Cameroon’s rural areas, has increased security expenses which impact on budget by around 1 to 2 percent of its GDP.

Based on the IMF estimate, the World Bank had estimated Cameroon’s 2014 GDP at over FCFA17,000 per capita.

If this war against terrorism was to continue, I can guarantee that the government will not be able to pay salaries and wages of public servants, a Cameroonian army colonel told APA on condition of anonymity.

In a listing made last January by the government, 1,098 civilians, 67 soldiers and three Cameroon policemen were killed between 2013 and early 2016 in 315 raids, 12 mine accidents and 32 suicide attacks by Boko Haram in the country’s Far North.