Cameroon deploys more troops to Nigeria’s border as Boko Haram war intensifies

Cameroon’s military on Tuesday said it deployed troops to its northern border with Nigeria after a series of attacks authorities say were carried out by the terrorist group Boko Haram.

The group did not claim responsibility, but Cameroonian authorities said they also deployed village militias in response to the attacks.

Cattle rancher Donald Kulbe says economic activity has been halted since Saturday’s Boko Haram attack on Cameroon’s northern village of Dabanga on the border with Nigeria.

The 52-year-old director of the Dabanga village cattle market says the fighters killed at least 50 animals and chased hundreds of civilians and cattle buyers from their village. He spoke to VOA from Dabanga via WhatsApp.

Kulbe said the economy has taken a hit in his village due to attacks claimed by the terrorist group, Boko Haram. This, he says, is on top of the economic downturn the Dabanga village is facing because of the coronavirus pandemic. Due to insecurity in the village and fear of customers, cattle ranchers are seeing their income fall drastically.

Several dozen villagers fled for their lives and are still hiding in the bushes in the areas near the border of the village, Kulbe said. Villagers identified at least 20 corpses after the fight between the attackers and the Cameroon military.

Midjiyawa Bakary is the governor of Cameroon’s Far North region that shares a border with Nigeria’s Borno state, epicentre of the terrorist group according to the U.N. He says more than 100 fighters attacked a Cameroon military base in Dabanga that Saturday.

The heavily armed fighters were on board six pick-up trucks and 20 motorcycles, Bakary said speaking to VOA from Maroua, capital of the Far North Region of Cameroon.

He says the terrorists killed a soldier and wounded two members of the Cameroon military who are undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

Credit: Premium Times/VOA