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Based on Cameroon’s navy, a large cache of weapons and fight gear meant for Boko Haram militants based mostly in Nigeria has been seized.
This week’s interception occurred in Maroua, a northern city near the shared border between Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon.
Officers stated the haul contained navy uniforms, greater than 400 packets of tear gasoline, greater than 100 gallons of oxidizing brokers used to make explosives, and long-barreled firearms.
The gadgets had been on their method to the Sambisa Forest, a Boko Haram stronghold that lies on the Nigeria-Cameroon border, in accordance with Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of Cameroon’s Far North area.
Bakari stated on state tv on Thursday, January 2, 2025, “I’m very grateful to the Cameroon navy for intercepting struggle weapons, fight uniforms, and acids used to manufacture explosives destined for a number of Boko Haram teams in Sambisa.”
He identified that following setbacks from the Multinational Joint Activity Pressure (MNJTF) of the Lake Chad Basin, the group is making an effort to reassemble and re-arm.
With 11,000 troopers from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad, the MNJTF has performed a key position in current efforts to degrade Boko Haram.
Regional leaders are nonetheless nervous in regards to the group’s tenacity and capability to make use of open borders to smuggle weapons and enlist new members, although.
Smuggling of Weapons Via the Douala Seaport
Bakari disclosed that Douala, the largest port in Cameroon, had been used to move a few of the intercepted weapons.
The invention reveals weaknesses within the nation’s provide chain safety, despite the fact that the exact path remains to be being seemed into.
Issues had been additionally voiced by Cameroon’s navy concerning Boko Haram fighters dressing like Cameroonian infantry and air pressure items.
Such methods are supposed to mislead civilians and allow assaults on communities seeking provides, officers cautioned.
A number of hundred Boko Haram fighters left Chad after his forces focused militants who killed greater than 40 Chadian troops in October, in accordance with President Mahamat Idriss Déby’s New Yr’s tackle.
The importance of concerted efforts within the combat towards the group was emphasised by Maki Jean Emmanuel, a lecturer and battle researcher on the College of N’djamena.
“No nation within the Lake Chad Basin can defeat Boko Haram by itself,” Emmanuel said, urging the MNJTF to be extra vigilant.
Emmanuel emphasised that Boko Haram is recruiting from impoverished and jobless youth and exploiting hard-to-reach villages.
“Arms will be smuggled to villages the place Boko Haram fighters are hiding due to the porous nature of the borders between Cameroon, Nigeria, and Chad,” he defined.
Arrests and Continued Examinations
A number of dozen folks have been detained by Cameroonian authorities in relation to the smuggling operation.
Their nationalities or identities, nevertheless, haven’t been made public.
To cease extra Boko Haram brokers from infiltrating, the federal government has requested residents of border cities and villages to alert safety forces to any suspicious exercise.
The Humanitarian Toll
Since 2009, the battle involving Boko Haram has claimed over 40,000 lives and displaced greater than three million folks throughout Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad.
As regional governments step up efforts to fight the group, the humanitarian disaster continues to pressure sources within the Lake Chad Basin.
The interception of the arms cargo marks a crucial victory within the combat towards Boko Haram however underscores the challenges of securing borders and stopping the group’s resurgence.
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