Official visit of the president of Nigeria ends

The head of the Nigerian state has just completed a two-day official visit to Cameroon. A trip focused mainly on security issued due to threats from the group Islamic State of West Africa, previously known as Boko Haram faced by the two countries.

In essence, Cameroon and Nigeria agreed on military cooperation in the fight against Boko Haram to intensify exchanges of information of staff. The heads of state also committed themselves to strengthening security cooperation along the border between the two countries.

This military cooperation will be extended to the surveillance of maritime space rife with other armed groups. To summarize, the pooling of resources on all fronts has been endorsed while Paul Biya and Mahammadu Buhari expressed their support for creating joint multinational intervention force.

A force to be deployed in August

The deployment of the multinational force was revealed by President Buhari who mentioned that this joint multinational force commander will be led by Major General Iliya Abbah on Thursday morning in Yaoundé. He is supposed to take his post tomorrow at Ndjamena, the Chadian capital with Chad being the country that will host the headquarters of the said force.

According to a Cameroonian military source, the bulk of the troops will be deployed progressively throughout the month of August. The force will have 10,000 men and will be driven by countries around the Lake Chad basin and Benin. The issue of the right of pursuit, which was opposed in recent months by Cameroonians and Nigerians, would also be settled within the framework of this force with its mandate being extended to all the countries where it has been called to deploy.

On the economic front, the main declaration was the next economic forum in Abuja Nigeria. Road corridors for the intensification of exchanges between countries will be built for the free movement of goods and people. It was an old agreement which was never realized and which dates from 1963.