Cameroon Repatriates 480 Absconding Nigerian Soldiers
About 480
government soldiers, who had previously fled into Cameroon after heavy
fighting with Boko Haram insurgents are currently being repatriated to
Nigeria by Cameroonian Authorities.
As previously reported by an AP news article, civilians fleeing into Cameroon gave accounts of being joined by Nigerian soldiers who were retreating from heavy fighting with Boko Haram insurgents in the border town of Gamboru.
The Nigerian army had previously referred to the unscheduled arrival of 480 Nigerian troops into Cameroonian soil as a “tactical maneuver”. A SaharaReporters source has revealed that’s the troops re entered Nigeria on a longer route through Adamawa state, rather than Borno state, after being transported in a long convoy under tight security escort.
The source said a long convoy transporting the troops entered Nigeria through a longer route from Adamawa state, rather than Borno state, and will soon join their units to continue operations against the Boko Haram militant fighters.
A security source based in the Maidugiri had previously informed SaharaReporters that Boko Haram sought to control the expansive areas of the Gamboru-Ngala for the strategic location and vibrant commercial infrastructure conducive for establishment of an Islamic caliphate.
Despite Nigeria’s government’s imposition of a State of Emergency in the Northeatern state of Borno late last year, Boko Haram has wreaked havoc in many areas of the region with hi-profile activities including successfully capturing the Gwoza Training camp of the Nigeria Police Mobile Force (PMF) last week and several army barracks and police installations, and towns.
Boko Haram has also successfully conducted cross border raids into neighboring Cameroon including the highly publicized kidnapping of the wife of Cameroon’s Vice Prime Minister Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali in Kolofata in late July.
The group has increasingly developed a violent nature in its operations since the killing of its founding leader, Mohammed Younus, in 2009.
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