Lake Chad Basin Region: Cameroon Government Says its Military has Defeated Boko Haram, Reduced it to Mere Expression

The Cameroon government says it’s committing a million USD in complementary funding for crisis management in the Lake Chad Basin region.

The country’s Prime Minister was speaking Monday, October 4 as he opened the 3^rd Governor’s Forum of the Lake Chad Basin that ends in Yaounde Tuesday.

Chief Dr. Joseph Dion Ngute also said Boko Haram has been reduced to an embattled core, with the terrorist group now changing strategy and resorting to suicide bombing- too scared to face the military frontally.

The Governor of the Far North Region who is also the President of the Governor’s Forum said his region has in recent months suffered some attacks but claimed that calm was returning.

“Thanks to our military, Boko Haram has been reduced to its basic minimum,” he said. He said the military has adopted a strategy that brings the population into partnership with the military in joint efforts not only to roll back the Boko Haram scourge but also to develop a region that has seen basic infrastructure destroyed.

He said the military has been helping educate students forced from school by Boko Haram and has also been involved in offering healthcare to the population.

Over 1.8 billion CFA F has been allocated by the government to the development of the region. In an interview with the government daily newspaper, Cameroon Tribune, the Executive Secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, Maman Nuhu said the “Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum is a vehicle for integration, peer review and a platform for cross-fertilization of ideas and best practices for development and resolution of the challenges confronting the region.”

“The Forum is a mechanism for regional cooperation, economic prosperity, peace, and security as well as a platform where various actors and development partners of the region can meet under a unified umbrella to proffer sustainable solutions to the challenges of the region. The aim of the Governors’ Forum is to enhance joint efforts, coordination, and regional ownership in the resolution of the crisis of the region by promoting cross-border dialogue, cooperation, and exchange, and to support ongoing national, regional, and multilateral efforts towards stabilization in the Lake Chad Basin (LCB).”

“Accordingly, the third Lake Chad Basin Governors Forum would, among others, enhance regional cooperation and integration; open more ways for cross-border trade and investments; and improve the security situation in the region.”

The Yaounde forum comes in the wake of a similar event in Niger. Maman Nuhu said some of the resolutions from the Niger meeting have been implemented, including the launch of the Lake Chad civil society organizations (CS0S) platforms designed to boost CSO engagement in regional affairs.

He said the Civil-Military Coordination cell of the Multi-National Joint Task Force will secure the area, emphasizing that the Yaounde Forum should result in “enhanced political cooperation among the Governors of the region,” a development Mr. Maman Nuhu notes is a “much-needed ingredient for expediting coordinated actions that would ensure a uniform response to the challenges of the region.”