Boko Haram
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Boko Haram has dramatically scaled back attacks in Cameroon in recent months, analysts said on Wednesday, suggesting a regional security force is gaining ground against the militants.
The Islamist movement - which controlled an area the size of Belgium in northeast Nigeria last year and raided Cameroon and other neighbours to expand its "caliphate" - had since suffered a string of defeats, International Crisis Group (ICG) said.
The report came days after security and U.N. sources said hundreds of Boko Haram fighters and their families had surrendered on another frontline in Chad.
There was no comment from any of the factions of Boko Haram which is still seen as one of the main security threats in West Africa.
"We've seen a dizzying downwards spiral in the number of attacks and suicide bombings," said Hans De Marie Heungoup, one of the report's authors.
Two years ago, attacks were happening on an almost daily basis, he said. But the number had fallen to between six and eight a month since September.
"[Boko Haram] has suffered heavy losses and seen its conventional capacities reduced," the study said, partly thanks to last year's formation of a 10,000-strong regional force with troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin.
Up to 1,000 fighters with heavy weaponry and armoured vehicles joined strikes in Cameroon's Far North Region in 2014-15, the report said.
But attacks were now focused on the northernmost tip of the region where fighters continued to control part of the fishing industry of Lake Chad amid a labyrinth of waterways.
Recruitment is also faltering in Cameroon although forced enlistment remains a risk, ICG said.
Up to 4,000 Cameroonians are thought to have joined the group and some were given sign-on bonuses of up to $2000 and a motorbike, according to the study, citing interviews with locals.
Those who proved their loyalty by killing their parents often enjoyed quick promotion, it added.
Analysts say the faction around the Lake Chad Basin represents the stronger branch of the group, loyal to Islamic State (IS) and led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi. Another faction led by Abubaker Shekau is based further south in Nigeria's Sambisa forest.
Reuters
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The remains of two Cameroonian soldiers killed by Boko Haram were decorated in Maroua on Friday, by the Governor of the Far North Region,Midjiyawa Bakari.
Caporal Ngafdigang Joseph and Halilou Ismael Benson were both posthumously raised to the rank of Bravery in the Cameroonian military.
The Friday, 4th of November 2016 ceremony was to pay tributes to the soldiers who gave the supreme sacrifice in the fight against terrorism and attended by four army Generals among them was the Commander of the Multi-National Joint Task Force.
The Commander of the Multi-National Joint Task Force said the demise of the two soldiers gives more encourage to the military expedition to completely flush out the terrorists. He added terrorist have been rounded up within a small area.
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Amnesty International has strongly condemned the 10-year sentence slapped on a 27-year-old Cameroonian who joked about Boko Haram.
Fomusoh Ivo and two of his friends - Afuh Nivelle Nfor and Azah Levis Gob - were convicted by a Cameroon Military court in Yaounde and sentenced to 10 years in prison for "non-denunciation of terrorist acts" linked to a sarcastic SMS about the terror group.
Even Boko Haram, wouldn’t hire you unless you passed five high school subjects.
"Fomusoh Ivo and his two friends should never have been arrested in the first place, as they were simply exercising their right to freedom of expression," Samira Daoud, Amnesty International Deputy Regional Director for West and Central Africa said in a statement late on Wednesday. "Instead of being in school like their friends, these three young men will now spend years of their lives in prison for a simple joke.
"This ruling is clear evidence that Cameroonian military courts should not have jurisdiction to try civilians. The Cameroonian authorities must quash their conviction and sentence and immediately and unconditionally release all three of them."
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Nigeria’s army says it has rescued at least 36 women and children from Boko Haram militants. The rescues took place in the North-eastern Borno State.
The rescues are part of the army's efforts to clear the militants along the border between Nigeria and Niger.
The army says six members of Boko Haram have been killed in the operation. Several others escaped with gunshot wounds.
The insurgents also reportedly left behind items like motorcycles and flags. It's not clear where the rescued women and children have been taken at this stage.
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A suspicious package containing "components used in the making of explosives" were seized on Teusday, 18. October 2016 at the "Lux Travel" travel agency in Maroua. Two suspects who came to retrieve the "package" sent from Ngaoundere were arrested by elements of the BIR.According to a statement by the head of Lux Travel agency in Maroua.The Far North region of Cameroon, has been under a state of emergency and lock-down for security reasons.
Security sources said that since 2012, Boko Haram has set up a web of contacts in Cameroon enabling the extremist group to nab Western hostages and set up a trafficking network dealing in arms, vehicles and merchandise.
In 2014, Cameroon went into battle to crack the network but has not managed to dismantle it. And ever since the Cameroonian army joined a regional military alliance to fight Boko Haram, the north has become a favoured target for the Islamists.
The porous border enables attackers to travel easily into Cameroon, where they can target gathering places such as markets and mosques.
In general, the explosives kill in a radius of around 50 metres (yards), said an officer from the rapid intervention battalion (BIR) tasked with battling Boko Haram.
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The Islamic State-allied faction of Boko Haram which last week freed 21 of more than 200 Chibok girls kidnapped in April 2014 in northeast Nigeria is willing to negotiate the release of 83 more of the girls, the president's spokesman said on Sunday.
Around 220 girls were taken from their school in 2014 in Chibok in northeastern Borno state, where Boko Haram has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state, killing thousands and displacing more than 2 million people.
A faction of the militant group released 21 of the girls on Thursday after the Red Cross and the Swiss government brokered a deal. They were brought from the northeastern city of Maiduguri to the capital Abuja to meet state officials.
"These 21 released girls are supposed to be tale bearers to tell the Nigerian government that this faction of Boko Haram has 83 more Chibok girls," Garba Shehu, spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
"The faction said it is ready to negotiate if the government is willing to sit down with them," said Shehu, adding that the state is prepared to negotiate with the branch of Boko Haram.
The Islamic State-allied splinter group said the rest of the kidnapped Chibok girls were with the part of Boko Haram under the control of figurehead Abubakar Shekau, according to Shehu.
Boko Haram has apparently split with a big group moving away from Shekau over his failure to adhere to guidance from the Iraq- and Syria-based Islamic State, which in August named Musab al-Barnawi as its new leader for West Africa.
But that appointment was later dismissed in a 10-minute audio clip on social media by a man purporting to be Shekau, exposing divisions within the jihadist group that has plagued Nigeria and neighbors Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Information Minister Lai Mohammed on Thursday denied reports that the state had swapped captured Boko Haram fighters for their release and said he was not aware if any ransom had been paid. He said a Nigerian army operation against Boko Haram would continue.
In recent days, the Nigerian army has been carrying out an offensive in the Sambisa forest, a stronghold of Boko Haram.
The militants controlled a swathe of land around the size of Belgium at the start of 2015, but Nigeria's army has recaptured most of the territory. The group still stages suicide bombings in the northeast, as well as in neighboring Niger and Cameroon.
Reuters
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