CAMEROON has deported over 2,000 Nigerians living in the country illegally as part of its crackdown on suspected Boko Haram militants as it steps up its fight against the terrorist insurgents.
With Boko Haram spreading its activities across the Lake Chad Basin region, Nigeria's neighbours Cameroon, Niger Republic and Chad have all intensified their fight against terrorism. They have all mobilised troops to fight the insurgents and joined the Multi National Joint Task Force put together to provide a unified front.
In addition, all of Nigeria's neighbours have also banned the wearing of the hijab as it is being used to smuggle explosives into populated areas. On Thursday, Cameroon took things a step further by rounding up about 2,500 Nigerians in Kousseri, in the far north of the country and deporting about 2,000 of them.
One source close to the regional authorities confirmed that more than 2,000 irregular Nigerians have been expelled from Kousseri. Mey Aly, an official from a local charity, said that most of the Nigerians had fled the atrocities of Boko Haram to take refuge in Cameroon.
Thursday's deportations came just a day after President Muhammadu Buhari visited Cameroon for talks on how to combat the escalating regional threat from Boko Haram. President Buhari and his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya pledged to strengthen cooperation between their two countries in the fight against the insurgents.
Cameroon's border post at Kousseri, which has been hit by two suicide attacks since June, occupies a strategic position, with just a bridge separating it from Chad’s capital N’Djamena. In an attempt to prevent further attacks, security has been beefed up in the area with troops drafted in to provide a physical presence.
One security source said: “With these attacks, the tone of the authorities has changed.
They have asked that foreigners, notably Nigerians and displaced people in the border areas go home.”
Some 300 Cameroonian children were also removed from their Koranic schools in Maroua and taken back to their villages on Friday. This is because the schools’ managers feared that insurgents could try to use them to mount suicide attacks.
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