East Region: Attackers steal weapons and ammunition of gendarmes

The Mboye Gendarmerie station, border town of the Central African Republic in the department Boumba and Ngoko, Eastern Region, was raided on 29 May by attackers from the Central African Republic.

The newspaper Le Jour disclosing this information in its issue on Monday, June 8, 2015 indicates that four Cameroonian gendarmes were to guard the night from 29 to 30 May 2015 but they abandoned the gendarmerie post. This is when the attackers arrived in the middle of the night.

The balance sheet is quite heavy: all weapons and ammunition that were in position were cleared away, office equipment and furniture were destroyed, and looted. According to sources cited by the newspaper, the attackers were rebels with a dissident faction of Seleka of former CAR president Michel Djotodja.

Because they have established their headquarters near Mboye, Cameroonian village on the border with CAR, the rebels frequently stay in Cameroonian territory.

The four policemen implicated in the case were escorted from Yokadouma, capital of the department and transferred to Bertoua, capital of the Eastern Region. They are currently staying at the eastern gendarmerie legion where they wait to answer for their actions before the competent courts.

Their detention disclosed the reasons for their dereliction of duty in a border area which is subject to rampant insecurity due to the security situation in the Central African Republic.

Since the creation in December 2013 of new units by the head of state, the army has deployed human and material resources in the region of East Cameroon. Assaults perpetrated by individuals who take advantage of the movement of people at the borders have already caused the death of several Cameroonian soldiers.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Didier Badjeck, spokesman for the Cameroon Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), the reaction of the defense forces during raids of "potential attackers helped reduce or even halt the trend of these incursions".

In the East, according Mindef information, the security risk is due to "the presence of fighters in disarray joining their initial groups as mercenaries near the border."