Get rid of Boko Haram or we get rid of you - Army cautioned

This week has been a particularly charged one for the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defence, Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o. Since Tuesday, Mebe Ngo’o has taken temporal residence in the northern part of Cameroon installing newly appointed military officials.

For each of the appointees, Ngo’o recalled the context in which the appointments took place.

Following the attacks of the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram in the northern regions, the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Arm Forces, Paul Biya decided to reorganize the military by creating new command bases and naming new officials.

“In carrying out this reorganization in the northern part of Cameroon, the president intends to give new impetus and ensure increased efficiency regarding the action of the defense forces to the war he declared against the Islamist sect Boko Haram,” Ngo'o said Tuesday in Garoua. He added that the reorganization has the advantage of bringing the new military legions closer to the battle ground of Boko Haram.

To each of the new officials, the Defence boss warned: “Get rid of Boko Haram, or we get rid of you.” This, apparently reminding them of their former colleagues who were fired in areas where the sect had wrecked havoc previously.

“Be an impeccable leader who is close to his men and permanently on the ground,” Ngo’o urged Colonel Frederick Ndjonkep of the 3rd combine military legion in Garoua.

The Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram, has continued its offensive in Cameroon even as the country redefines strategies to better tackle the group. They are reported to have killed at least three people and kidnapped 15 others in a fresh cross-border attack in the north. A security source has confirmed figures of the attack that took place on August 18.

“The attack took place on Monday afternoon when at least 20 armed men tried to get food supplies, stealing all the food stocks found in the Cameroonian village of Greya.

Boko Haram militants killed at least three civilians and abducted a dozen others - presumably all Cameroonians. Before leaving, the terrorists also burned down the village's primary school,” the source told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.

In the grand north, residents now live in constant panic, fearing Boko Haram might strike at the slightest opportunity. Fotocol, a Cameroonian town across the border from Nigeria's Borno state - the base of the Islamist group, has been deserted, the Journal gathered.

So, too, are many surrounding villages where stray bullets regularly strike houses, killing people and animals, whenever the Nigerian sect launches an attack.

Boko Haram has massacred, kidnapped and looted several times in different areas in the north of Cameroon even with the government military nearby. This explains the deployment of about 500 soldiers in Kolofata, Fotocol and the surrounding area to provide security for residents.

And President Paul Biya is confident his forces will get rid of the sect. “We beat marquizars, conquered Bakassi, we will conquer Boko Haram,” he said few weeks ago.