Boko Haram militants
CAMEROON POSTLINE
13 January, 2011
By Divine Ntaryike Jr
In recent weeks, Nigerian media reports have unveiled tacit grumbling by the Abuja Federal Government over Cameroon’s feet-dragging in squarely tackling Boko Haram terrorists, widely considered to be using the country as a safe haven. Ostensibly, news of the western neighbor’s exasperation has finally reached the ears of the Yaounde regime, to go by ongoing proceedings.
Some 600 soldiers in the Far North region have been ordered out of their barracks and strategically deployed in localities close to the border with Nigeria. The soldiers from the 32nd Motorized Infantry Battalion in Mora have been fortified by a contingent from the 4th Joint Military Region in Maroua.
Since Wednesday, January 10, they have been combing Mora, Amchide and patrolling other localities flanking the region’s porous western borders with Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, reputed as a Boko Haram stronghold. Their mission is to garner intelligence via collaboration with local populations, closely monitor the circulation of persons and goods, as well as pinpoint and arrest suspects of the radical Islamic group. The decision to deploy the troops was reached at a security conclave chaired by Far North regional Governor, Joseph Beti Assomo, in Maroua Tuesday.
It came amid indications of the bulging presence of Boko Haram militants in the country’s predominantly Muslim northern regions. The massive troop positioning follows increasing arrests and the grilling of suspected activists and spies of the radical Islamic movement.
On January 4, gendarmes in Dabanga, a village in the Logone and Chari administrative division situated about 3 km from the border with Nigeria seized a group of “preachers” presumed to be linked with the Boko Haram. The ten men said they were from a retreat at an Islamic organization known as Daawa Islamiya in the regional capital Maroua, and had opted to preach in village communities as they trekked back to their base in Kousseri. “We ordered their arrest and detention for the purpose of identification. They were handed over to the Far North Gendarmerie Legion Commander in Maroua and their evangelism in local mosques suspended till further notice,” Logone and Chari prefect, Ernest Ewango told local journalist Adolarc Lamissia Wednesday.
However, the reporter quotes a gendarme source indicating that data contained in laptops seized from the men as well as phone call listings provide evidence linking the detainees with the terror group.
Infact, the source hints that investigations are underway to verify suspicions that one of the nabbed men could well be the public relations officer for Boko Haram in Nigeria’s Borno State. Three of the arrested suspects have since been released, but remain under close surveillance. One of them, Cheikh Daoud has told reporters that the “indiscriminate” clampdown and harassment could generate psychosis, panic and massive exodus within the Muslim community in the region.
Elsewhere, gendarmes grilled three Imams for several hours Monday and sealed scores of Quran instruction centers after arresting seven more suspects last Sunday in Banki, a border market.
On the sidelines of the swelling Boko Haram crackdown, there are fears Cameroon customs and tax revenues from the northern regions may slump considerably this year as a result of the December 31 decision by Abuja to temporarily shut down its land boundary with Cameroon to tighten cross-border controls in the wake of increasing Boko Haram attacks. Traders complain they are stuck with produce like onions, rice, maize, vegetables and millet which they usually export to Nigeria.
In return, consumers of Nigerian sugar, flour, cement and other manufactured products are grumbling over plummeting supplies, while smuggled Nigerian fuel otherwise known as “zoua-zoua” is witnessing sharp price hikes following the country’s decision to freeze subsidies.
Elsewhere, Cameroonian students enrolled in Nigerian universities say they are stranded. In the streets of the northern regions, there are fears the situation may culminate in social upheavals if the ongoing arrests and soaring prices last too long.
