By Sylvanus Acha’ana Ezieh in Yaounde
Renowned
and fearless civil society activist, Tazoacha Asonganyi, has made nonsense of
President Biya’s renewed declaration that the dreaded Nigerian Islamic sect,
Boko Haram, would be wiped out of Cameroon soil.
Asonganyi |
Biya |
President
Biya had while receiving some 27 ex-hostages at the Unity Palace on Monday, vowed that government would go after
the Islamist group Boko Haram “until it is totally wiped out”.
In a
sharp reply to Biya’s renewed declaration to crush Boko Haram, Asonganyi told
The Guardian Post by phone last night that it contradicts the Yaounde
authorities’ eagerness to always negotiate with the Islamic militants each time
they kidnap people on Cameroon soil. Hear him: “How can Mr. Biya be declaring
war against a sect his government frequently negotiates with each time a kidnap
is made? Mr. Biya should tell Cameroonians the conditions under which these
hostages are freed.”
While
sustaining that the war against Boko Haram shouldn’t be left in the hands of
government alone, Asonganyi advised that the battle to completely wipe out Boko
Haram from Cameroon should be void of reckless public declarations because they
could be counter-productive.
Meanwhile,
President Paul Biya had made the promise as he received 10 Chinese and 17
Cameroonians freed last week after spending months as hostages of armed men
thought to belong to Boko Haram, an anti-Western rebel group in Nigeria which
has been increasingly making incursions into Cameroon. “The Cameroonian
government assures you that it will ceaselessly continue to fight Boko Haram
until it’s totally wiped out,” he vowed at Monday’s Unity Palace reception.
The 27
Cameroonians and Chinese were handed to authorities on Friday night. The government
has not said how they were freed, but a security source told AFP
that “a ransom” was paid and around 20 imprisoned Boko Haram militants freed in
exchange.
The
Chinese were seized in May from a construction camp in Waza, near the border
with Nigeria in an attack that left one Cameroonian soldier dead. The
Cameroonians; including the wife of deputy prime minister, Amadou Ali, were
abducted in July during two simultaneous assaults, also blamed on Boko Haram,
in which at least 15 people died.
One of
the released Cameroonians, Seiny Boukar Lamine, told state radio, “we were in
these sort of huts in a pretty dense forest, it was in a savannah with big
trees and a lot of brush. We slept on the ground.” He said he was held with his
wife and six children.
Another
former hostage, Abdouraman Seini, who survived a gunshot to his hand, said he
and the other captives were forced to eat whatever was provided and at times
went for days without water to drink. He said they lived in miserable
conditions and that they were tortured by men armed with knives and guns.
“Freedom is a good thing, I pray such a thing never happens to anyone”, he
said.
Abdouraman
Seini added that he did not see any of the more than 200 girls from Chibok, that
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for kidnapping in April. According to him
“women are separated from men in the various detention camps run by the
militants in the bush”.
Seini
also told reporters he believes it is very likely Boko Haram fighters will
continue their attacks because they are running out of food for the hundreds of
fighters and the hundreds of captives they have.
In a
related development, the Multi National Joint Task Force, MNJTF, comprising
soldiers from countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission have decided to establish
the MNJTF headquarters in Borno state next month.
Nigeria’
s minister of foreign affairs, Amb Aminu Bashir Wali disclosed this, pointing
out that troops of the task force will be deployed into action next month to
checkmate the tendencies of Boko Haram terrorists crossing into border
communities to wreak havoc.
According
to Wali, after the meeting of LCBC member states in Benin Republic, it was
agreed that the MNJTF headquarters be established in Baga town in Kukawa local
government area of Borno state, on November 20, 2014.
He said
the choice of Baga was in tandem with the decisions reached by heads of state
and government of member states of Lake Chad Basin Commission, LCBC for which
the ministers of foreign affairs and defence met in Abuja on Monday. Cameroon
was represented at the meeting by the minister of external relations, Pierre
Moukoko Mbonjo and the minister delegate in-charge of defence, Edgar Alain Mebe
Ngo’o.
The
resolution of the meeting would be forwarded to United Nations Security Council
and the African Union to put the legal frame work in place against insurgency.
Nigeria’s foreign minister noted further that the activities of Boko Haram
terrorists in Baga, which served as the epicentre of their strategic activities
in terms of arms procurement, planning for attacks and reception centre for
foreign insurgents or mercenaries due to its proximity to porous borders,
justified the expansion of the Task Force’s mandate in April, 2012 to include
the fight against terrorism. His words: “Our meeting today underscores our
common commitment to good neighbourliness and fine-tuning our collective
resolve and strategies to confront terrorism. It is an established fact, which
we have often stated that terrorism is an international phenomenon that has to
be addressed through collaborative efforts at sub-regional and global levels. As
a sub regional body, we are at a crossroad. We must define the nature and scope
of this struggle, which we must win or else, it will define us. At regional
level, we have succeeded in enhancing cooperation in border patrol with
neighbouring countries. We have also succeeded in deploying troops along our
common borders...”
“A new
Regional Intelligence Fusion Unit, RIFU, has since become operational. Various
forms of assistance have been received at bilateral and multilateral levels
from our development partners and friends in terms of training. Most of these
initiatives were sound but regrettably, resulting in certain inconveniences
which have raised questions about the balance that we must strike between our
commitment to democratic values, our interests in security and other national
priorities”.
For his
part, the executive secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, Sanusi Imran
Abdullahi said members states were more than determined to fight terrorism as a
collective menace in the region. “We had the meeting of ministers of defence
and chiefs of defence staff and chiefs of security of the member countries and
Benin in Niamey July and we discussed the current security situation and the
deployment of troops by member countries as agreed by the heads of state. Each
country is to give an equipped troop, battalion to the Multinational Joint Task
Force. As at that time, Niger and Chad had already deployed their battalions at
locations within their countries. Of course, Nigerian troops are already there
in Baga more than even a Battalion...
“But
Cameroon was preparing to deploy their contingent. So we are hopeful by the end
of this meeting today and before the end of the month as agreed at the extra
ordinary summit, Cameroon should have deployed their own contingent of a
battalion within their border in the Lake Chad Basin until the legal
arrangements are finalised for the operation of the force together to work
across borders”.
Abdullahi
disclosed that the president of Benin Republic, Boni Yayi, had promised to
deploy a battalion which he described as a plus to us to member states. “The
Multinational Joint Task Force is to give us a tool for the fight against all
forms of terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin and in the member countries or at
least in the member countries that have signed this declaration at the extra
ordinary summit”.
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