Boko Haram kills 2 Nigerian refugees crossing from Fotokol to Gambarou

Two Nigerian refugees were killed by Boko Haram militants as they left Fotokol in the department of Logone and Chari en route to Gambarou in Nigeria. The two were heading home on Saturday, March 14, 2015, and met their end on the other side of the river El Beid.  Since the withdrawal of Chadian troops from Gambarou, Nigerian refugees cross the border daily to repatriate their property from Fotokol. A military source who spoke to Cameroon Concord at the time of writing this report revealed that the situation is under control and that the bullets that eventually took the lives of the two Nigerians were fired from the Nigerian side of the river El Beid. The Far North region of Cameroon is hosting several thousands of Nigerian refugees and internally displaced Cameroonian citizens. The UN has estimated that over 40 000 Nigerian refugees fleeing the atrocities of the Nigerian Islamic sect have taken refuge in Cameroon.

Boko Haram in Nigeria is a child of Nigerian history and the impunity of Northern Nigeria’s Military establishment. Armed conflict is part of Nigeria history. It is also a business which has enriched many.  People including generations unborn learn from history. The savaged brutality meted on civilians and civilian objects in Nigeria pre-exist Boko Haram. These acts of impunity were some of the methods deployed by successive military regimes, most of them from Northern Generals to accede and sustain power. The ongoing slaughter by Boko Haram follows the same pattern which in 1966 led to the Nigeria/Biafra War. The underlying cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Southerners, mainly of the Ibo ethnic groups in the North was never comprehensively investigated, if at all.  There is no gainsaying that had the crimes been investigated, the result would have pointed to some powerful individuals within the Nigerian Military structure of Northern origin. For these, political power and control of the economy could only be attained through scapegoating communities whom they perceived as serious competitors.