The Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo is once again on a security visit this time around to the Far North region that is suffering from repeated Boko Haram attacks that have claimed lives of soldiers and civilians.
In the space of three days, thirteen Government forces paid the ultimate sacrifice in service for the defense of the peace and integrity of the Far North region, five among whom were burnt alive in the two latest attacks perpetrated by elements of the Boko Haram Islamist sect on two military posts in the region that borders Nigeria where the sect originates from.
Attacks too many that have prompted the two-day working visit of the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo to the troubled region beginning this Wednesday July 28.
The Defense boss has as objective to monitor operations on the field to protect people and their goods and preserve the territorial integrity of the region, review the strategy in place, re-mobilize his troops and reiterate the need to be on constant alert not to be taken unaware.
During the past months, Boko Haram though lost its leader to the cold hands of death has been multiplying attacks in some localities that border Nigeria with Cameroon, killing soldiers and civilians, burning and looting property making the region the epicentre of its violence.
The sect has equally been recruiting more soldiers and re-strategizing on how to cause more havoc on both ends of the Cameroon-Nigeria border.
Minister Beti Assomo’s visit to Maroua is thus timely to address the increasing preoccupying security situation in the region as a whole.
The Boko Haram insurgency began in Nigeria in 2009 and then spread across the Lake Chad basin countries, including Cameroon. Boko Haram’s attacks are often indiscriminate, including suicide bombings in crowded areas that appear designed to maximize civilian deaths and injuries.
Cameroon has had a sharp spike in attacks over the past year. According to a November 2020 report of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a United States Department of Defense think tank, the number of Boko Haram attacks against civilians in Cameroon in 2020 was higher than in Nigeria, Niger, and Chad combined.
S.K.
