Economic activity resumes on Cameroon-Nigeria Border, officials say
Markets have re-opened and border merchants say traveling near the border is safer thanks to a heavy presence of troops.
CAPE TOWN, April 12 (ANA) – Officials in Cameroon and Nigeria say economic activity has gradually resumed along their border, despite the continued presence of the terrorist group Boko Haram, Voice of America news reports on Tuesday.
Markets have re-opened and border merchants say travelling near the border is safer thanks to a heavy presence of troops.
Gasoline seller Oumarou Fouman, 40, has told VOA news life is gradually returning to the town of Amchide on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria. He says many merchants have been crossing into Cameroon from Nigeria with electronic appliances, auto parts and food to sell.
Fouman is one of eight men who have resumed buying gasoline from Nigeria and selling it in Cameroon. He says before he crosses over from Cameroon, he calls his suppliers in the Nigerian town of Banki to find out if it is safe to travel.
International rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) last week has said the Boko Haram rebel group has stepped up its operations and attacks on civilians in towns and villages in the Far North region of Cameroon since last December, killing at least 80 civilians.
The organisation says the group has also looted hundreds of homes and has turned the region into the epicentre of its violence.
Boko Haram is waging a war on the people of Cameroon at a shocking human cost, said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at HRW.
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 maximise civilian deaths and injuries, according to HRW.
It says Cameroon has had a sharp spike in attacks over the past year. According to a November 2020 report of the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, a US department of defence think tank, the number of Boko Haram attacks against civilians in Cameroon in 2020 is higher than in Nigeria, Niger, and Chad combined.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Naomi Mackay