Boko Haram
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Cameroon’s government says the multinational joint forces fighting Boko Haram have arrested five leaders of the extremist group and freed dozens of women and children held captive.
Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma said Saturday that the raids targeted Boko Haram’s bases in the Madawaya forest earlier this month.
He said the operation freed 28 children along with at least 18 women.
The spokesman said Boko Haram had set up camp in the forest after fleeing another military operation in neighbouring Nigeria. He said the fighters had been training young girls and women as suicide bombers.
Boko Haram’s nearly 7-year insurgency, which has launched attacks beyond Nigeria’s borders into Cameroon, Chad and Niger, has killed at least 20,000 people, according to Amnesty International.
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Africa's richest man, Nigerian business tycoon Aliko Dangote donates 10 million dollars to the persons displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno state, Nigeria.
Mr. Dangote made a commitment to end malnutrition, hunger and starvation in the refugee camps and other parts of the country.
“This is not the first time I am coming here and it will not be the last. So far, we have expended about N1.2 billion in efforts to alleviate the suffering of IDPs across Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.” Said Mr.Dangote during a visit at the camps in Borno state
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Over 300 members of a vigilante group in Cameroon’s far north region helping the military fend-off attacks byt the Islamist sect Boko Haram marche up to the sub-prefecture of Moskota (Far North) to denounce on Tuesday morning the “mockery gifts” from a donation by President Paul Biya, as motivation to the sacrifices they are offering the nation, security sources said.
They chanted hostile slogans against local authorities in front of the prefecture, before dispersing after thirty minutes, refusing to accept their share of the donation consisting of four bags of groundnut and maize, a carton of soap, a box of tomato and 18 bottles of mineral water.
Last April, President Biya donated vigilant groups in the towns of Logone and Chari, Mayo-Sava and Mayo-Tsanaga a cargo estimated at CFA 1.9 billion consisting of foodstuff, basic products, animal feed, veterinary products, and agricultural equipment. According to the protesters, a good deal of the donation had been diverted by the authorities responsible for their distribution to the rightful beneficiaries. In March, President Biya donated 40 motorcycles and 60 bicycles to the police to strengthen the fight against jihadism in the Far North of the country.
In another development, one civilian is reported to have been killed on Monday overnight at Vizi (Far North-Region), following a raid by the Nigeria-based sect Boko Haram. Hours later, two Cameroonian soldiers were injured on the Djibrili-Gouzda highway, located in the same area as their vehicle ran over a mine reportedly planted by the insurgents.
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Maroua-Cameroon:Boko Haram reportedly is working to enlist traditional and religious leaders in northern Cameroon to recruit new members amid continued military pressure on both sides of the border.
Abdouraman Ousman, a Muslim religious leader, says members of the militant group kidnapped him from his home in Kerawa on the border with Nigeria last year.
The militants told him that he could go home if he would recruit for them, Ousman said. He refused, but was freed in February during a raid by soldiers.
Imams and traditional rulers are being manipulated by Boko Haram fighters to convince naïve, young people to join the terrorist group, Ousman says, adding that Boko Haram targets traditional rulers, too — not only for ransoms, but to get them to help recruit members.
Some imams reportedly return to Cameroon and lie to young people, telling them they will earn $500 per month if they join Boko Haram, or they try to trick youths into thinking they are joining the military.
The Islamic Council of Traditional Rulers and Muslim dignitaries invited Ousman and about 200 other community leaders from the north to Yaounde this week to talk about how to counter Boko Haram's influence.
The government needs the help of local leaders, according to Inoussa Assabe of the Islamic council.
"They have to go toward the traditional rulers,” Assabe said. “Government has to come in and send security people who are not in uniform just to get investigations and know exactly what is going on."
At Monday’s meeting, the council said several religious and traditional leaders in the north have been arrested on suspicion of working for Boko Haram.
The government said the suspects are cooperating with authorities and will face charges in court, but would not say how many people have been detained.
VOA
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Two female suicide bombers were intercepted in the village of Homaka-Blabline (Mora-District)in the Far North Region of Cameroon.The first bomber was shot by a member of the local vigilance committee, while the second detonated her explosive device, killing herself instantly. Cameroon military later detonated the unexploded explosives strapped on the first bomber. There were no casualties apart from the pair. The two female suicide bombers were from Madawaya, a Nigerian village near Homaka-Blabline.
Boko Haram is based in Nigeria, where it has overrun villages, killed thousands of people and abducted hundreds of women and children in recent years. Nigeria began a major offensive against Boko Haram last year, prompting many of the militants to scatter across the border into neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon to carry out attacks. The four countries’ military forces have been trying to work together to combat the group.
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The Nigerian military has launched a military offensive aimed at putting pressure on the Islamist militant group Boko Haram as well as rescue unarmed civilians kidnapped by the militants, according to military spokesman Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman.
“We still have remnants of Boko Haram hibernating inside Sambisa Forest so the essence of it is to clear the remnants of Boko Haram in that forest and also intensify our rescue operation and so far the operation is progressing very well. Even though, the other time the [militants] attempted to attack our position…But of course our troops rose to the occasion, and dealt decisively with Boko Haram militants to the point of killing quite a number of them and recovered weapons anti-aircraft guns, and of course mortal bombs like 81 millimeter, ” said Usman.
His comments follow reports that the United States is considering selling 12 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to Nigeria to help the West African country in the fight against Boko Haram.
Washington had refused to sell weapons to former president Goodluck Jonathan’s administration over concerns of human rights abuses by the military.
Critics of the Nigerian government say Islamic militants are active and still attacking civilians and soldiers, despite government pronouncements that Boko Haram has been effectively defeated. They have also engaged in suicide bombings using civilians they had abducted.
Usman disagreed. He said the military has been able to thwart numerous attacks from Boko Haram. He said a lot of the militants have either been killed or surrendered to the Nigerian military adding that groups is a shell of itself, incapable of seizing territories.
“If you look at it, the Boko Haram militant caught virtually everybody unawares because let’s say six years ago nobody in Nigeria ever thought that we will have a problem of terrorism let alone the magnitude of Boko Haram terrorism as it were…Within a short period of time let’s say from July last year up to this moment, all those gains made by the Boko Haram have been reversed to the point that we have even recaptured not only the villages and towns they hitherto called their caliphate including their spiritual headquarters.”
Asked about the efforts to locate and free the abducted Chibok school girls and others kidnapped by the militants, Usman said the military is still working hard to bring the girls back home to their families. He said the military has been able to rescue Boko Haram kidnapped victims including foreigners.
“We have been able to rescue over 12,000 people and I believe that we have more people that are being held hostage by the Boko Haram militant in some of these their hideouts… We have been working to also ensure that we rescue them, including the abducted Chibok school girls. And we are hopeful, definitely, wherever they are we will definitely rescue them,” said Usman.
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