General Rene Claude Meka says "worsening security situation in Fotokol and Gambaru is under control"

The Joint Chiefs of Staff and commanders of the police and gendarmerie forces of Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Burundi, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe and Cameroon met in Yaoundé on Thursday the 12 of February in a security meeting aimed at developing a common strategy against the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram. Cameroon Concord understands that the military leaders were expected to make recommendations to be submitted to the Heads of State meeting slated for Monday, February 17, 2015 in Yaoundé. This is the second international conclave being held in the political capital of Cameroon in the space of a week.  Cameroon army chief of staff, Lt. General Rene Claude Meka told the forum that the situation in the Far North region of Cameroon and Gambaru in Nigeria is under control. General Rene Meka added that even though Boko Haram continues his attacks, “the combine Chad-Cameroon military presence in Fotokol and Gambaru has restored security in the area”.

As the war against Boko Haram intensifies, the perception that it is wedged by disaffected and jobless youths who oppose and hate Western Education is becoming pedestrian. The sophistication of the command and operational structures of Boko Haram leaves no one in doubt about this reality.    The weapons deployed to commit the ongoing pogrom appear to have been acquired and brought to the war zones through a complicated network. It is hard to believe that a conflict of this magnitude can occur without a complex network of individuals and organizations supporting Boko Haram’s criminal war effort. It may be reasonably suggested that it is a political establishment serving distinct interests in Nigeria and Cameroon. In Nigeria, it has never sought ransom for the many victims it has abducted. In Cameroon although officially classified as a nebulous or illusive enemy, it has turned abduction for ransom into a lucrative business. 

Boko Haram in Nigeria is a child of Nigerian history and the impunity of Northern Nigeria’s Military establishment. Armed conflict is part of Nigeria history. It is also a business which has enriched many.  People including generations unborn learn from history. The savaged brutality meted on civilians and civilian objects in Nigeria pre-exist Boko Haram. These acts of impunity were some of the methods deployed by successive military regimes, most of them from Northern Generals to accede and sustain power. The ongoing slaughter by Boko Haram follows the same pattern which in 1966 led to the Nigeria/Biafra War. The underlying cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Southerners, mainly of the Ibo ethnic groups in the North was never comprehensively investigated, if at all.  There is no gainsaying that had the crimes been investigated, the result would have pointed to some powerful individuals within the Nigerian Military structure of Northern origin. For these, political power and control of the economy could only be attained through scapegoating communities whom they perceived as serious competitors.