Boko Haram
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- Boko Haram
A Nigerian government push to strangle the Boko Haram insurgency has shut down the cattle trade that sustained the city of Maiduguri, leaving many residents with no livelihood, including many of the two million people displaced by the war.
In recent months the army has taken back much of the territory lost to the jihadists during the five-year insurgency.
But the war, which killed thousands of people, is still taking its toll in the northeast, despite President Muhammadu Buhari's vow to crush Boko Haram by the end of last year.
The group, now officially allied to the Islamic State fighters who control much of Iraq and Syria, has responded with suicide bombings and hit and run attacks against civilians.
In the latest shock to civilians, meat has become scarce as the army has closed cattle markets to stop Boko Haram from raising funds by selling livestock, officials say.
The shutdown of the Maiduguri cattle market -- one of the biggest in west Africa -- has, overnight, made hundreds of cattle traders, herdsmen, butchers and laborers unemployed.
"We are suffering," said Usama Malla, a cattle herdsman who lost his job. While he spoke, an angry crowd quickly gathered to criticize the government. "We want compensation," others demanded.
The sprawling market had been one of the main employment opportunities for the more than one million displaced people who live in camps on the outskirts of the town after fleeing Boko Haram.
Officials say they were forced to shut the market because Boko Haram has resorted to stealing cattle from villagers to feed its fighters and raise funds after the army pushed it out of cities. Cattle looting has displaced its previous sources of income: robbing banks and kidnapping wealthy people.
The market closure has disrupted beef supplies in Maiduguri and the rest of Borno state, adding to the hardship of people who have long complained of poverty and neglect in the north -- struggles that prompted some to join Boko Haram's revolt.
"I cannot afford meat anymore," said Musa Abdullahi, a laborer sipping milk sold by a female street vendor. He said he has to feed two wives and nine children, and can't remember the last time he was able to buy meat for the family. "I used to get a piece of meat for 350 naira ($1.75), now it costs 900."
Borno state governor Kashim Shettima said he had reopened the Maiduguri market to trade existing stock but banned the arrival of any new cattle for two weeks so authorities could identify sellers.
"There were suspicious persons who sold cattle which they had bought from Boko Haram," he said. "This is financing the terrorists."
The closure has left some 400 animals dying in trucks stopped by the army on the way to Maiduguri, traders said.
Officials say authorities plan to distribute food and find jobs for the city's youth. But options are limited as a slump in vital oil revenues has undermined Buhari's plans to develop the north, which is poorer than the mostly Christian south, where Nigeria pumps its oil.
MIDDLEMEN
Located some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) from the Atlantic coast and the southern megacity of Lagos, Maiduguri used to be a busy cattle market serving neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger until Boko Haram attacks closed the nearby borders.
Supplies for the Maiduguri market had thinned even before the cattle embargo as Boko Haram fighters burned fields and forced farmers out of their villages in recent years.
The army, which moved its command to fight Boko Haram to Maiduguri to be close to the front, has repelled two recent attacks on the city of two million, allowing commercial flights to resume.
But soldiers manning sand-bagged checkpoints and imposing a curfew are a reminder that life is anything but normal. Suicide bombers strike often in its suburbs.
Security officials say Boko Haram's cattle raids suggest the group is desperate to find food after the army pushed it out of several towns. More than 70 supporters begging for food surrendered last week, the army said.
But cattle traders say the raids are simply a new tactic by the jihadists raise funds.
Daho Dida, a cattle trader sitting in the shade of a wall, said fighters had stolen a 350-strong herd from him and a 500-strong herd from his brother. He said the military had failed to stop the raids, with soldiers running into the bush the moment they came under fire.
"They buy foodstuff, petrol and other stuff with the money," he said of the fighters.
The jihadists sell stolen cattle to middlemen who take on the risk of dealing with them by paying just 20,000 naira ($100) a head, a quarter of the usual price, said Adam Bulama, a leader of a civilian vigilante force helping the army.
It's a worthwhile risk for middlemen to ship the cattle to Maiduguri, where prices have surged to 120,000 naira per head because of the temporary ban.
Bulama said dealers need personal connections with staff at abattoirs that are still slaughtering cows from the existing stocks. "Now meat is scarce in Maiduguri," he said. "Nobody can afford it."
Buhari says Boko Haram is no longer able to overrun security posts or seize government offices. But displaced people holding out in camps remain wary of going home. Boko Haram fighters often ambush "liberated" roads or villages in hit and run attacks, aid workers say.
"Houses in our village were burned," said Bulami Ari, a 47-year old farmer who lives with his two wives and six children in a tent since the jihadists raided last year their village, located just 45 km outside Maiduguri. "There is no security."
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- Elangwe Pauline
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- Boko Haram
4 large Boko Haram tankers transporting fuel, livestock, ammunitions and clothing have been seized by Cameroon specila forces in the town of Fotokol, near the border with Nigeria.
Our Maroua correspondent reported that the seizure was made on the 7th and 8th of March 2016. Boko Haram militants killed four civilians in the Bame- Kolofata locality town on Tuesday. A Kolofata villager was also killed and his cattle were taken away in an attack attributed to the Nigeria Islamic sect.
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- Rita Akana
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- Boko Haram
Female soldiers of the National Gendarmerie corps engaged at the warfront in the northern part of the country against the terrorist sect, Boko Haram, have been praised for their unwavering courage and bravery. While presiding over a festive common meal with civilian and military female staff of the National Gendarmerie corps on March 8, 2016 at the Camp Yeyap barracks in Yaounde, the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Jean Baptiste Bokam, urged them to remain confident that their defense of the fatherland and preservation of territorial integrity will not be in vain.
After the march past to mark the 31st International Women’s Day in Yaounde, the female staff of the National Gendarmerie corps gathered around their boss and through the department’s Gender Focal Point, Colonel Elisabeth Mindzie, praised hierarchy for progress made to ensure gender equality in their administration. Also speaking on their behalf, Major Huguette Mvogo noted with satisfaction the change in recruitment policy that instituted at least 10 per cent female recruits for every gendarmerie recruitment examination.
In training, female gendarmes are admitted in all internships while appointments now put women in several levels of command. As example, there is one Legion commander, one Regional Gendarmerie Headquarters chief of staff, two military tribunal presidents, over 200 company commanders and a multitude of brigade commanders. “But we don’t yet have a director or a general,” the spokeswoman noted. A grievance supported by the Special Guest and Coordinator of the “More Women in Politics” Network, Pr. Justine Diffo.
In response, Jean Baptiste Bokam revisited the path covered to demonstrate hierarchy’s awareness of the woman’s undeniable role in command but urged them to sustain their quest for excellence and good work because promotion to higher grades and appointment to posts of responsibility require the permanent culture of discipline, respect of hierarchy and moral rectitude, amongst others.
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- Cameroon Tribune
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- Boko Haram
The Govornor of The Far North Region has handed out motorbikes and bicycles from the Cameroon Government to antigang groups to monitor the porous northern border with Nigeria. Through this measure,the government hopes the youths can track down suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers.
About 50 members of an anitigang group sing and dance to local war songs as they prepare to venture into Cameroon's northern frontline with Boko Haram. They know the terrain to their finger tips and are capable of outmaneuvering the insurgents.
They wield different versions of handmade machetes, a few Kalashnikovs and anything they could use to scare off the Islamists. Since their inception, they have had some amount of success fending off an already weakened Boko Haram.
By giving the vigilantes motorbikes and bicycles, Midjiyawa Bakari, who is the Governor of Cameroon's Far North region, told DW that he hopes they can "track down unwanted visitors."
"After a long period of time spent encouraging people to contribute to the fight against Boko Haram, the inhabitants of villages bordering Nigeria have been joining these self-defense groups in large numbers," Bakari said.
"Those members that died protecting Cameroon did not lay down their lives in vain. Their country will always remember and honor them," he added.
Last year, Cameroon and its neighbors formed a military coalition and launched an offensive against Boko Haram. They took back almost all of the swathes of territories under control of the militants.
Boko Haram has resorted to carrying out lone wolf suicide attacks and is now planting landmines across the Cameroon-Nigerian border. As a result, Cameroon's army is suffering heavy casualties and cannot keep track of Boko Haram's locations. The government hopes that with local expertise and very mobile vigilante groups, the movement of the militants can be tracked.
In Kolofata, a Cameroonian border town, which has been hit several times by Boko Haram, an armed vigilante, Fon Godlove, is cruising on his brand new 125cc motorbike. Godlove is one of 50 recipients of the bikes. "This motorcycle will take me to anywhere I want to go,"Godlove proudly said.
The primary school teacher joined a vigilante group last year, because he said he was tired of running away from Boko Haram. He is aware of the dangers of confronting gun-toting militants, armed to the teeth, with crooked and rusty machetes. But he said he is not afraid to confront them anywhere.
His new motorbike will make his work much easier, he said. "Whether the road is bad or good, I am able to go with the motorcycle. It can take me anywhere - un-tarred roads, hilly places, valleys, deserts," Godlove added.
As the vigilantes received their motorbikes, Kolofata resident Dr. Awah Sadjo was among the group of onlookers. She said she understands the reasons for making the youths mobile. "The military cannot be everywhere," Sadjo said.
Sadjo lost a few members of her family during Boko Haram attacks in 2015. "We feel more secure when there are self defense groups at work. Now that they have been given motorcycles and weapons to facilitate their work, I feel happy," Sadjo added.
Another Kolofata resident, Hamadikou Falama, said Cameroon is reporting fewer casualties as a result of the work of the vigilantes. "Last week we detected three strange teenage boys in the town and when some of our members went to search them, the strangers refused to collaborate," Falama said.
"After using force, we discovered they had explosive devices that they were planning to install on our roads. One of them unfortunately escaped, but we arrested the two," he added.
(DW)
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- Elangwe Pauline
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- Boko Haram
Suspected Boko Haram killers gunned down at least 9 people in Cameroon on Monday night in a sustained escalation of mass murder by a group of ruthless terrorists who have killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and kidnapped scores of women in recent years.
Local newspaper, L’Oeil du Sahel, said the four civilians were killed
in the locality of Bame near Kolofata in Cameroon’s far north along the border with Nigeria where the terrorists are based.
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- Elangwe Pauline
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- Boko Haram
A Cameroonian gendarmerie captain has been killed by a Boko Haram landmine in the Far North region. We gathered that Captain Ekoume was aboard a military vehicle when it hit a "landmine". Military sources say he led an emergency mission to Gouzda- a town in the Mayo Moskota division. Captain Ekoume alongside other wounded comrades were rushed to the intensive care unit at the Koza Adventist Hospital where he died.
Cameroon Concord was reliably informed at the time of filing this news brief that another senior gendarmerie officer, Captain Wadai was responding to treatment. The dead of Captain Ekoume brings the tally to three senior Cameroon servicemen killed by landmines in the Far North.
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- Chi Prudence Asong
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