Politics

At least 86 militants of the Takfiri terrorist group Boko Haram have been killed in an operation carried out by Cameroon’s army in the country’s Waza region near the border with Nigeria. Defense Ministry spokesman Didier Badjeck said Monday that five Cameroonian soldiers also lost their lives in the operation. A military official also said that over 1,000 Boko Haram suspects were being held in a prison in the town of Maroua. “At the moment, the prison of Maroua is holding more than 1,000 Boko Haram (suspects),” said Colonel Joseph Nouma. The development came as Nigerien police announced that more than 160 suspected elements of the Nigeria-based terrorist group were arrested near the border with Niger. “We would like to warmly thank the residents of the Diffa region whose assistance has allowed us to arrest more than 160 suspects,” said Nigerien national police spokesman Adily Toro on Monday on a local television network.

Nigeria also said that its army retook the control the strategic garrison town of Monguno in the northeast from Boko Haram. “Troops in a military operation spearheaded by highly coordinated air assaults have completed the mission of clearing terrorists from Monguno and environs this morning,” Nigerian Defense Ministry spokesman Chris Olukolade said. Boko Haram issued a statement on Monday threatening Niger and Chad with bomb attacks. The Takfiri group criticized Niger for joining the military campaign against the militants. “If you insist on continuing the aggression and the coalition with the government of Chad, then we give you glad tidings that the land of Niger is easier than the land of Nigeria and moving the war to the depth of your cities will be the first reaction toward any aggression that occurs after this statement,” it said.

The warning came as leaders from Niger and other African countries gathered in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, to finalize plans for a joint offensive against the militants who have stepped up their attacks in recent weeks. The Monday meeting, which pledged to create an 86-million-dollar fund to fight the group, called on the international community to provide more support in the fighting against the Takfiri militants. “We have to eradicate Boko Haram,” said Cameroon’s President Paul Biya. A multinational force with soldiers from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Benin, Burundi and the Central African Republic is expected to be formally launched in the coming weeks to fight Boko Haram. Nigeria-based Boko Haram has widened its attacks into neighboring countries, notably Cameroon and Chad, in a conflict estimated to have claimed a total 13,000 lives since 2009. The Boko Haram terrorist group has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of Nigeria. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly 650,000 Nigerians have fled their homes due to Boko Haram violence and are displaced inside the African country, while thousands of others have taken refuge in neighboring countries.

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Ngwa Bertrand

17.Feb.2015

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The Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram has killed 4 soldiers of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (Bir) this morning at Fokotol. The four soldiers were shot on the axis of the Waza-Kousseri highway by Boko Haram fighters. 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.

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Ngwa Bertrand

16.Feb.2015

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The extraordinary summit of the Council for Peace and Security (COPAX) Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of Central African States, which opened today in Yaounde, has agreed an emergency aid package of 50 billion CFA francs as support for troops engaged in the fight against the Nigerian Islamic sect Boko Haram and also for the development of instruments relevant to the restoration of peace and security in the Central African sub region. President Biya and his wife offered lunch to the 200 delegates who attended the forum at Unity palace. At the time of writing this report, our correspondent in Yaounde hinted that President Idriss Deby is presently visiting wounded Chadian soldiers receiving treatment at the military hospital in Yaounde.

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.

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Ngwa Bertrand

16.Feb.2015

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Cameroon Special Forces have arrested a police officer in Maroua who has been supporting Boko Haram fighters infiltrating from Nigeria. Cameroon Concord’s chief correspondent in Maroua observed that police chief Inspector Abdoulaye Farikou was arrested following an order from the State Counsel of the Maroua Appeal Court in the Far North region.

Abdoulaye Farikou reportedly delivered Cameroon national identity cards to Boko Haram fighters that enabled some 2,500 fighters from Nigeria to impersonate, spy and massacre hundreds in Fotokol and Mabass. Our military informant who contributed to this report noted earlier today that investigations on Inspector Abdoulaye Farikou started when some Boko Haram militants caught in action carried Cameroon IDs but could not articulate a single word in French or in Cameroonian pidgin English.

At the time of writing this report, information filtered to our news desk that Chief Inspector Abdoulaye Farikou has been transferred to Yaoundé, where he will be tried by the military court. He will be judged using the Anti Terrorism Act recently passed by parliament, which prescribes the death penalty on anyone helping the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

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Ngwa Bertrand

14.Feb.2015

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Members of the secret service department of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) have arrested two women and five children in Fotokol with links to Boko Haram. Local media reports in the Far North region say the two women and the children accompanying them came from across the river El Beid, fleeing the fighting in Gambaru where the Chadian army was engaged yesterday in intense battle with Boko Haram.  Cameroon Concord gathered that the women after interrogation accepted being wives of Boko Haram fighters.  Fotokol is found in the Logone and Chari division some few kilometres from Nigeria.

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.

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Ngwa Bertrand

13.Feb.2015

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Money in the hands of Boko Haram is money that kills. And Boko Haram cannot terrorize without money. Finance networks operated by Boko Haram exist in Nigeria with the potential to penetrate Cameroon official money markets. The financial warfare therefore remains the most efficient soft power responses against international terrorism. One of the most challenging aspects in the war against terror is combating Jihadist terrorist finances. Understandably the financing of terrorism appears to possess a very dynamic agenda metamorphosing and making its comprehension extremely difficult. It is very disturbing to think that Nigeria, the so called giant of Africa has failed to develop the capacity to predict innovations in the method that Boko Haram as a terrorist organizations uses in carrying out their fund raising.

Intrinsically, to carry out terror attacks even as massive as that which took place in Fotokol in Cameroon does not necessarily demand huge sums of funding. However, cutting off the resources both financial and material exploited by Boko Haram through an efficient and effective internationalization of finance surveillance policy may actually deter Boko Haram attacks and preventing the movement of smaller amount of funding can save many lives and property and reduce the devastating impact of Boko Haram attacks which were of course difficult to prevent.

Apart from the operational cost of carrying out a terror attack, Boko Haram is badly in need of funding to undertake recruitment programs, the purchase of sophisticated communication tools, propaganda, planning, and infrastructure. Correspondingly, the policy of internationalization of finance surveillance within the ECOWAS and Sub Saharan regions has the potential to make available routes that can help in intelligence gathering on how a terror attack was staged and revealing the identities of the perpetrators and helping to identify other members and sympathizers who contributed in one way or the other to the attack.

The financial surveillance policy will also help secret service officers gain a better understanding of the modus operandi of Boko Haram’s fighters operating within the Northern regions of Nigeria and Cameroon including Niger. In Cameroon, terror attacks have never been part of our society. Now that they occur on a daily basis, they create serious repercussions in both domestic and international politics and business. For instance, the massacre on Fotokol is causing our government millions of dollars.

Mindful of the difficulties in assessing the effectiveness of the internationalization of finance surveillance policy, evaluations and success stories are not rare on this policy. We of Cameroon Concord think that President Biya should pressure his Nigerian counterpart for the adoption of some measures aimed at countering terrorism. The formulation of these counterterrorism responses should be based on intelligence gathering and sharing, the war on terror which is already going on involving the anti Boko Haram coalition, greater policing, the passing of new anti-terrorism legislations not based on a CPDM intimidation approach such as the terrorism law recently passed in Cameroon, the policies of disruption, prosecution, deportation, control orders, proscription and finance surveillance.

Cameroonians are yet to see any set of financial regulations adopted by Nigeria ranging from assets freezing of people suspected of having links with Boko Haram to requirements demanding the reporting of suspicious transfer of money. We have not seen bank accounts belonging to individuals and cultural and tribal organizations operating in the North of Nigeria being shut down and above all, we have not seen any attempt by the Nigerian government aimed at preventing any financial transactions deep within the informal banking sector in the Northern regions of Nigeria. President Goodluck has not implemented any policy to check fraud, smuggling, extortion which are all means by which Boko Haram moves money around. It is high time we acknowledge that the ranting “Nigeria is the giant of Africa” is a mere empty rhetoric. With our troops already inside Nigeria, President Biya should challenge President Goodluck to get into state business and forget about the distractions coming from the political wing of Boko Haram known in Nigeria as the APC party.

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Ngwa Bertrand

13.Feb.2015

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