Cameroon’s military says it has seized several hundred weapons and combat uniforms that were being smuggled to a hideout of the Nigeria-based terrorist group Boko Haram. Officials say troops have been deployed in a bid to capture more weapons and prevent Boko Haram from re-arming itself.
Cameroon government officials say long-barreled firearms, military uniforms, over 400 packets of tear gas and more than 100 gallons of oxidizing agents were seized from suspected Boko Haram members this week in Maroua, a northern town near the central African country’s border with Nigeria and Chad.
The military says the oxidizing agents are used by Boko Haram terrorists to produce explosives.
The governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, Midjiyawa Bakari, says the weapons were being smuggled to Nigeria’s Sambisa forest, a Boko Haram stronghold.
Bakari says he is very thankful to the Cameroon military for intercepting war weapons, combat uniforms and acids used to fabricate explosives destined for several Boko Haram groups in Sambisa, a forest which straddles the Nigeria-Cameroon border and is a hideout for members of the terror group. He says Boko Haram is rearming and recruiting members after it was weakened by troops of the Multinational National Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin or MNJTF.
MNJTF is made up of 11,000 troops from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
Bakari told Cameroon state TV on Thursday that some of the weapons were smuggled through the Douala seaport.
He did not say how the weapons got to Douala but said investigations have been opened to trace the origin of the weapons.
Cameroon’s military says some of the combat uniforms seized are similar to those used by its infantry and air force. Boko Haram fighters sometimes disguise themselves as government troops to deceive civilians before attacking communities for supplies, officials say.
The government says civilians should help prevent Boko Haram from re-arming and recruiting new members by reporting strangers in all border towns and villages to government troops.
Chad’s president, Mahamat Idriss Deby, in his New Year’s message on Tuesday, said several hundred fighters escaped Chad to neighboring countries when his troops launched Operation Haskanite.
The operation’s goal is to neutralize Boko Haram fighters who attacked and killed more than 40 Chadian government troops in the Lake Chad Basin in October.
Maki Jean Emmanuel is a researcher on conflicts in the Lake Chad Basin and visiting lecturer at the University of N’djamena. He says no country in the Lake Chad basin can single-handedly defeat Boko Haram.
Maki says MNJTF should be on alert because Boko Haram is infiltrating many villages where government troops do not have easy access and recruiting new members, especially poor and unemployed youths, is taking place. He says the porous nature of the borders between Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad makes it possible for arms to be smuggled to villages where Boko Haram fighters are hiding.
Cameroon says several dozen people caught smuggling the weapons were arrested but has given no details on whether they are Cameroonians, Nigerians or Chadians.
Over 40,000 people have been killed and 3 million have fled their homes in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad since 2009, when fighting between Nigerian government troops and Boko Haram militants degenerated into an armed conflict and gradually spread to neighboring countries.
