[size=18pt]Cameroon under pressure from Boko Haram[/size]




Cameroon's military are battling cross-border raids by Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram, as the BBC's Thomas Fessy found out when he joined soldiers on a patrol.

A soldier is standing on the back of a flatbed pick-up truck leading the convoy.

His high-powered twin-barrelled gun is turned towards Nigeria. In reality, though, the weapon is aimed at what Boko Haram call their "caliphate", or Islamic state.

The border village of Amchide is mostly deserted. Only a handful of people can be seen as we drive through.

They are hastily throwing a few belongings on a cart as they prepare to leave. They probably did not have time to take anything when they fled during an attack, and came back to recover their possessions.

The dusty road is the line that the militants keep crossing on almost a daily basis now, attacking the villages and Cameroonian army positions.



Thousands of Nigerians have fled to Cameroon


Many of them walked long distances to escape Boko Haram



"Every day, there are gunshots," a Cameroonian commander says.

He explains that the situation is so tense that he would rather stay anonymous.

"They are there; they are turning, watching, trying to know what we are doing and how we can react. It's unpredictable. Boko Haram is like a ghost."
'Not our war'

The strain is tangible. Cameroon's elite Rapid Intervention Battalion, commonly known by its French acronym BIR, has lost dozens of men since the beginning of the year in the fight against Boko Haram.

About 1,000 men from BIR, trained by US and Israeli forces, have been deployed along a 500-km (300- mile) stretch of porous border with Nigeria.

Boko Haram is advancing and Cameroon's military fight daily battles to keep the boundary with Nigeria - Africa's most populous state - intact.


Most of the village is now deserted



Military reinforcements have been sent to the border

Cameroon's military recently dispatched another 2,000 soldiers to the border region to reinforce troops.

Last month, Boko Haram attacked the military post at Amchide with a tank.

A car bomb exploded a few metres away minutes before the tank stormed the gate of the Cameroonian base. The tank's charred remains are still to be seen outside the military post.

Cameroonian soldiers complain that they have been left to fight a war which started in another country on their own.

On the other side of the front line, the Nigerian army has fled.

"And the French, where are the French?" an army officer bitterly asks, referring to the French counter-terrorism force commanded from Ndjamena, the capital of Chad, only a few hundred kilometres to the north-east.

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[size=17pt] "And the French, where are the French?”

Cameroonian army officer[/size]

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The rains have come to an end and the rivers have dried. Cameroonian soldiers know that during the dry season, more attacks are likely.

Their concern is that the militants, who have taken control of some ten towns in Nigeria, want to raise the black flag of their "caliphate" on their territory as well.
"No one is really able to say what Boko Haram wants," says Saibou Issa, specialist in Peace and Security Studies at the University of Maroua, the capital of Cameroon's Far North region.

"But they are able to play on the fact that the cross-border security co-operation is non-existent. It is only a matter of time before Boko Haram launches a terror attack in Maroua. Then it will trigger a much bigger crisis."

There are suspicion and fear on the streets of Maroua, which has a population of more than 200,000.

"I don't feel comfortable near people whom I don't really know well," says a student at the university, "I make sure that I am home before six PM."

"Never go out without your ID card," says the young man next to her as they queue to register for their exams.

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[size=17pt] I don't feel comfortable near people whom I don't really know well”

Student[/size]

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People are getting used to life in refugee camps


School have also been established for displaced children



The conflict has affected some three million people


"Anything can happen and if you are caught in the area when it does, without documents, you will automatically become a suspect," he says.

In this impoverished region, pastoralists and traders cannot move across the border anymore.
The long-term economic impact of Boko Haram's military campaign, launched in Nigeria in 2009, is grim.

About 43,000 Nigerians have poured into Cameroon so far, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
'You must convert'

"We expect thousands more in the coming weeks," says Samuel Cameroun at Minawao refugee camp, which currently hosts 17,000 people.

They all arrive there with stories of unspeakable suffering inflicted by Boko Haram.

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[size=17pt]When they took over my town, we felt like prisoners”

Mariamu Ali Nigerian refugee[/size]

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A recent Boko Haram video showed fighters parading an armoured vehicle in an unidentified town

[img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/79089000/jpg/_79089542_img_4087(3).jpg[/img]
Many people in Maroua city are gripped by fear

"When they took over my town, we felt like prisoners," says Mariamu Ali, 26.

Her husband was shot dead by Boko Haram in Gwoza, a Nigerian town with a population of more than 250,000 captured by Boko Haram in August when it declared a caliphate in areas under its control.

After a year on the run, the rest of Mrs Ali's family is finally reunited here at the camp.

From the foothills of Gwoza in Borno state, they had kept fleeing southwards, from one attack after another.



"When they ordered single and widowed women to marry fighters, I knew I had to escape," says Mrs Ali, a Muslim.

When Boko Haram raids a town or a village, it rules with guns and knives
Adamou Moussa, a Christian, shows me a large scar on his right arm.

He took a bullet during one attack, he says, and in another attack his left hand was maimed.

"They said: 'We have come purposely for you, you have to be a Muslim today'," Mr Moussa explains.

To the militants who threatened to slit his throat if he did not comply, he replied: "To be a Muslim for me is not a day job. I cannot be a Muslim. I have my religion."

A Boko Haram fighter went for his neck but he raised his hand to protect himself. One of his fingers was severed.

People like Mr Moussa are lucky to have escaped Boko Haram's rule and are safe for now but the brutality they left behind in Nigeria may soon follow them as Boko Haram has already spread its war into Cameroon.

SOURCE: m.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30078626

Just as the APC want it so we are having it.

BBC is only doing its job according to the ethics of journalism.

2cato:
Just as the APC want it so we are having it.

now i know some people are destined to be fools

i will be back

Please can anyone point out were the BBC "were having a go" at Nigeria?

Are they also being harassed, I mean are the Camerounian soldiers under threat from GEJ to warrant them hiding their identities? They couldn't even provide picture of the burnt tank. Not a good job.
Still I implore the sponsors of BH to please let peace reign. Let their peace in our dear Nigeria and please let our daughters free, we love and miss them.

factual news report!!

unlike sit at home correspondents we have in Naija

BBC is doing its job and some persons are complaining, I tire oo

Just like we have all been brainwashed to believe by Jonathan and 'some' of his not-so-smart supporters, reporting whatever is going on in the troubled regions is evil and any Nigerian media organisation that dares to report it as it is is heavily sanctioned by the government and labelled, "BH supporter/sympathiser"

christejames:
BBC is only doing its job according to the ethics of journalism.

just like they're doing in Ukraine?

mrvitalis:

now i know some people are destined to be fools

You can say that again.

Some say they want freedom of speech but what they really mean is they want you to have freedom to speak only when you have something good to say about them

I am still dire on how armour ed vehicle entered boko haram camp

In 2011, these people voted GEJ
but what happened: some people made the president believe only their region deserves the president's attention and love
and whatever happens in other regions are just anti-GEJ's propaganda and agenda.
Lets see if these people who keep claiming they love GEJ ALONE can get him into power in 2015.
We shall see!

Misleading topic

AZeD1:
Please can anyone point out were the BBC "were having a go" at Nigeria?

I read the story from begining till end, searching for where BBC had a go at Nigeria, but I found none!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRgKam4HR-Y

[size=15pt]Cameroonian army fights Boko Haram near Nigerian border[/size]

Rare footage obtained by AFP shows the Cameroonian army engaged in fighting against Islamist group Boko Haram in northern Cameroon close to the border with Nigeria

mrvitalis:

now i know some people are destined to be fools

I see it in another light. He just insulted the FG. How could a political party be stronger than a sitting government if the government isn't incompetent??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JimzT6P57A

[size=15pt]Cameroon Steps Up Fight Against Boko Haram[/size]

WARNING: This report contains images that some may find disturbing

Cameroon's military is claiming more success in its campaign against Nigerian militants, Boko Haram. Elite troops reportedly detained 58 suspected militants in the far north over the weekend -and seized a stash of weapons too. Some local analysts though question the government's tactics and warn Boko Haram could threaten further south. CCTV's Jane Kiyo has this story