Biya barks, Boko Haram bites

From Hamadina Hamza in Maroua

Paul Biya barking at Boko Haram

 Apparently in a swift response to President Biya’s recent bluffing that Boko Haram is not any match to the Cameroon military, the dreaded Nigerian islamic sect has once more hit the Far North region of the country. But while attention was seemingly directed to Kolofata where they stroke recently, the terror group took the army off guard with another deadly attack in the Zegagué locality in the Far North region.

Boko Haram militants after successful operation in Cameroon

The islamist terror group launched the attack on August 6 at about 2p.m; three days after the head of state vowed that the Cameroon army was going to stem their activities in Cameroon. Biya had boasted of reinforced security in the northern part of the country shortly before his departure to Washington last Saturday for the US – Africa leaders’ summit.

The SDO for the Logon and Chari division under whose jurisdiction the attacked village is situated confirmed the attack on the 8 pm news over state radio Wednesday. He said causalities had been recorded on both sides.

Reports say two soldiers of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR, were killed, alongside a police commissioner, while two of the children of the lamido of Zigué Zigagué as well as the elder brother of the traditional authority of Waza were kidnapped. Some six truck drivers were reportedly also killed in the attack. They carted away several vehicles and fled helter-skelter from soldiers of the Cameroon army who outweighed them in the confrontation.

The assailants who alighted on motor bikes and a pickup vehicle also kidnapped a police commissioner and burnt a vehicle belonging to the police. Security officials have not yet confirmed the kidnap of the police commissioner but have admitted the missing of a police commissioner.

The attack is coming less than two weeks after a deadly one that was staged by the same terror group in the Bagarem neighbourhood in Kolofata, Far North region. During the attack, several soldiers and civilians were killed while the wife of the vice prime minister was kidnapped alongside the mayor of the Kolofata municipality. Conflicting figures have been given about the number of deaths and abducted persons, while an official statement from the ministry of defence is still awaited.

Unofficial sources say a team of soldiers from the Cameroon army and Boko Haram assailants met on August 1, at about 4 p.m. in Kamouna, specifically in Hile-Halifa after the Kolofata attack and exchanged corpses of their comrades who were killed in the Bargaram confrontation. During the meeting which is said to have been organised by the mayor of Fotokol, the Boko Haram delegation handed over 12 corpses to the Cameroon delegation which was made up of two Kotoko and two Arab-chaoses. Ten other dead bodies were reportedly abandoned on the battlefield where both sides had exchanged gun fire for two days.

Cameroon security forces are said to have rejected an offer by the terrorists to return the armed forces vehicles in exchange of one insurgent who was detained in Kousseri.

French news agency, APF reported Wednesday that a police source hinted that the Nigerian Islamic sect has recruited hundreds of Cameroonian youths, trained them and brainwashed them. The agency report stated that the police commissioner who spoke off-record said that the vice prime minister whose wife was abducted by the terror group revealed to them, that he has a list of about 450 young Cameroonians who have been recruited into the sect.

Traditional authorities, police sources and a close aid to the vice prime minister confirmed reports that about 200 of the insurgents who attacked Kolofata were dressed in Cameroon army attire. They also told APF that a good number of them were boys from the locality. The traditional rulers simply claimed that their kids were drugged and manipulated, but other contradicting reports say, apart from the money paid to the new recruits, huge sums of money were given to their families.