Boko Haram leader Abubakar
Shekau has threatened Cameroon
in a video message on YouTube,
warning that the same fate would
befall the country as neighbouring
Nigeria.
The video, which was posted on
January 5, is directly addressed to
Cameroon’s President Paul Biya
after repeated fighting between
militants and troops in the
country’s far north.
“Oh Paul Biya, if you don’t stop this
your evil plot, you will taste what
has befallen Nigeria… Your troops
cannot do anything to us,” Shekau
said in Arabic.
It is first time Shekau has directly
addressed Cameroon and is also
the first admission that Boko Haram
has been actively operating in the
country.
Boko Haram fighters had in the past
launched attacks on northeastern
Nigeria from bases in Cameroon but
recent months have seen an
increase in strikes within the
country.
Boko Haram, which began its
violent insurgency in 2009, has
taken over swathes of territory in
three northeastern Nigerian states,
and declared some towns as part of
its Islamic caliphate.
Cameroon’s far north has come
increasingly into the group’s firing
line and on December 28, Yaounde
deployed fighter jets against Boko
Haram for the first time.
Biya personally ordered the air
strike after the insurgents crossed
the border and seized a military
camp, the government said on
December 29.
The aerial bombardment, hailed as
a new phase in the counter-
insurgency, forced the Islamists to
flee, it added.
Cameroon’s president has made a
series of strong statements against
Boko Haram and in October last
year vowed to go after the group
“until it’s totally wiped out”.
In May last year, he said that a Paris
meeting of Nigeria’s neighbours
was designed to “declare war on
Boko Haram”.
But a key agreement at the summit
to set up a regional force has yet to
be implemented, with Cameroon
increasingly vocal in its criticisms
about the lack of a coordinated
response to Boko Haram..
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
