Politics

Cameroonian soldiers killed 20 Boko Haram fighters on Wednesday during a raid in northern Nigeria carried out by a multinational force tasked with stamping out the Islamist militants, military sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Commander General Jacob Kodji said the Islamist fighters were killed in the Nigerian town of Djibrila, which is about 10 km (six miles) from the Cameroon border. A spokesman for Cameroon's Defence Ministry, Colonel Didier Badjeck, said 12 hostages were freed and munitions and armoured vehicles were seized during the operation.

Boko Haram wants to establish an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria and has waged a six-year campaign of violence to that end, killing thousands of people and displacing two million others. Boko Haram is thought to have killed around 15,000 people, according to U.S. military figures.  

Attacks have spilled over Nigeria's border into neighbouring countries including Cameroon, which has been the target of a stream of suicide bombings in recent months. Along with Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Benin, Cameroon has contributed troops to an 8,700-strong regional task force dedicated to fighting the group.

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Elangwe Pauline

17.Mar.2016

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Cameroon’s Local Newspaper L’Oeil du Sahel reports that 89 members of the Boko Haram  Terror Group were sentenced to death at a high court in Maroua Far North Region of Cameroon. Over more than 1000 captured insurgents are still awaiting their fate as trial goes on.

 Cameroon has become a major target for Boko Haram attacks. Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said earlier this month that the insurgents have killed nearly 1,200 people since they began attacks in Cameroon in 2013. Tchiroma has frequently said that "the days of Boko Haram were numbered." But the most recent attack suggests otherwise. Cameroon is part of an 8,700-member Multinational Task Force to fight the terrorists, and the United States has contributed 300 troops as well as equipment to assist.

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Elangwe Pauline

17.Mar.2016

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The honorable members of parliament took advantage of the first regular session for 2016, to renew the office of the Chamber. The election process began today Tuesday, March 15, 2016. The MPs voted for a president, a first vice president, five vice-presidents, four secretaries and 12 quaestors. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril and Etong Hilarion were elected President and Vice President respectively. The names of the other bureau members have not been made public. 

Hon. Cavaye has held the post of speaker since 1992. Upon his reelection, the 76 years old sports teacher from the Far North North region recited the CPDM rhetoric: I affirm and reaffirm my loyalty to President Paul Biya, today, tomorrow like yesterday". Cavaye Djibril also moonlights as the traditional ruler of Mada his native village.

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Rita Akana in Yaounde

15.Mar.2016

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Cameroon said raids on Boko Haram strongholds along the country's northern border with Nigeria are taking a huge toll, with hospitals in the area overwhelmed by victims wounded during insurgency efforts, officials said.

Regional forces from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Benin have been launching raids on the militants since last December.
The troops' raids, as well as suicide bombings and landmines used by the insurgents have increased the number of victims.

The hospitals are suffering acute shortages of staff, medical equipment and infrastructure.

Hannah Lechantre, a French-born volunteer with the Cameroon medical council, said the Mora district hospital, with a capacity of 50 beds, now has 350 victims from Cameroon and Nigeria.

'Very worrying'

"Actually, their health status and their mental status is very worrying. All these people, families, women, children have been hiding so long in the bush, eating nothing and drinking dirty water, so they arrive in Cameroon in very very bad situation in terms of health," Lechantre said.

Cameroon Health Minister Andre Mama Fouda said five hospitals, with a capacity of about 350, on the border with Nigeria are overcrowded with more than 1,700 victims being taken care of by about 400 staff members.

Fouda said the hospitals lack equipment and infrastructure to cope with the growing numbers and the hospitals are running short of supplies despite international efforts to assist.

Cameroon said more than 1,500 victims of Boko Haram atrocities died in hospitals on its northern border with Nigeria between January 2015 and March of this year.

(VOA)

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Elangwe Pauline

15.Mar.2016

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A Nigerian government push to strangle the Boko Haram insurgency has shut down the cattle trade that sustained the city of Maiduguri, leaving many residents with no livelihood, including many of the two million people displaced by the war.

In recent months the army has taken back much of the territory lost to the jihadists during the five-year insurgency.

But the war, which killed thousands of people, is still taking its toll in the northeast, despite President Muhammadu Buhari's vow to crush Boko Haram by the end of last year.

The group, now officially allied to the Islamic State fighters who control much of Iraq and Syria, has responded with suicide bombings and hit and run attacks against civilians.

In the latest shock to civilians, meat has become scarce as the army has closed cattle markets to stop Boko Haram from raising funds by selling livestock, officials say.

The shutdown of the Maiduguri cattle market -- one of the biggest in west Africa -- has, overnight, made hundreds of cattle traders, herdsmen, butchers and laborers unemployed.

"We are suffering," said Usama Malla, a cattle herdsman who lost his job. While he spoke, an angry crowd quickly gathered to criticize the government. "We want compensation," others demanded.

The sprawling market had been one of the main employment opportunities for the more than one million displaced people who live in camps on the outskirts of the town after fleeing Boko Haram.

Officials say they were forced to shut the market because Boko Haram has resorted to stealing cattle from villagers to feed its fighters and raise funds after the army pushed it out of cities. Cattle looting has displaced its previous sources of income: robbing banks and kidnapping wealthy people.

The market closure has disrupted beef supplies in Maiduguri and the rest of Borno state, adding to the hardship of people who have long complained of poverty and neglect in the north -- struggles that prompted some to join Boko Haram's revolt.

"I cannot afford meat anymore," said Musa Abdullahi, a laborer sipping milk sold by a female street vendor. He said he has to feed two wives and nine children, and can't remember the last time he was able to buy meat for the family. "I used to get a piece of meat for 350 naira ($1.75), now it costs 900."

Borno state governor Kashim Shettima said he had reopened the Maiduguri market to trade existing stock but banned the arrival of any new cattle for two weeks so authorities could identify sellers.

"There were suspicious persons who sold cattle which they had bought from Boko Haram," he said. "This is financing the terrorists."

The closure has left some 400 animals dying in trucks stopped by the army on the way to Maiduguri, traders said.

Officials say authorities plan to distribute food and find jobs for the city's youth. But options are limited as a slump in vital oil revenues has undermined Buhari's plans to develop the north, which is poorer than the mostly Christian south, where Nigeria pumps its oil.  

MIDDLEMEN

Located some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) from the Atlantic coast and the southern megacity of Lagos, Maiduguri used to be a busy cattle market serving neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger until Boko Haram attacks closed the nearby borders.

Supplies for the Maiduguri market had thinned even before the cattle embargo as Boko Haram fighters burned fields and forced farmers out of their villages in recent years.

The army, which moved its command to fight Boko Haram to Maiduguri to be close to the front, has repelled two recent attacks on the city of two million, allowing commercial flights to resume.

But soldiers manning sand-bagged checkpoints and imposing a curfew are a reminder that life is anything but normal. Suicide bombers strike often in its suburbs.

Security officials say Boko Haram's cattle raids suggest the group is desperate to find food after the army pushed it out of several towns. More than 70 supporters begging for food surrendered last week, the army said.

But cattle traders say the raids are simply a new tactic by the jihadists raise funds.

Daho Dida, a cattle trader sitting in the shade of a wall, said fighters had stolen a 350-strong herd from him and a 500-strong herd from his brother. He said the military had failed to stop the raids, with soldiers running into the bush the moment they came under fire.

"They buy foodstuff, petrol and other stuff with the money," he said of the fighters.

The jihadists sell stolen cattle to middlemen who take on the risk of dealing with them by paying just 20,000 naira ($100) a head, a quarter of the usual price, said Adam Bulama, a leader of a civilian vigilante force helping the army.

It's a worthwhile risk for middlemen to ship the cattle to Maiduguri, where prices have surged to 120,000 naira per head because of the temporary ban.

Bulama said dealers need personal connections with staff at abattoirs that are still slaughtering cows from the existing stocks. "Now meat is scarce in Maiduguri," he said. "Nobody can afford it."

Buhari says Boko Haram is no longer able to overrun security posts or seize government offices. But displaced people holding out in camps remain wary of going home. Boko Haram fighters often ambush "liberated" roads or villages in hit and run attacks, aid workers say.

"Houses in our village were burned," said Bulami Ari, a 47-year old farmer who lives with his two wives and six children in a tent since the jihadists raided last year their village, located just 45 km outside Maiduguri. "There is no security."

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Elangwe Pauline

15.Mar.2016

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President Paul Biya and wife,Chantal Biya returned to the nation’s capital, Yaoundé on Monday 14 March 2016 from a brief private visit to Europe amid the scandal that rocked the nation over the weekend at the Lanquintinie Hospital in Douala. There was an ironical  festive mood at the Nsimalen International airport marked by drum beats and dancing from CPDM militants and other well-wishers who turned out in large numbers to greet the presidential couple downplaying the grieve that plaqued the whole nation from the incident in Douala. 

After brief discussions with some of his closest acolytes, the presidential motorcade made its way to Unity Palace as more "jubilant" die-heart supporters  thronged the streets of Yaoundé right up to the entrance of the presidential palace.It's unclear whether or not Mr Biya will take action or address the nation concerning the incident at Lanquintinie Hospital . However, it is now evidently clear that when Yaounde breaths, the whole nation is alive and active.

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Elangwe Pauline

15.Mar.2016

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