Cameroon and Chad defence ministers, Joseph Beti Asomo and Daoud Yaha Brahim, met on Tuesday, October 3, in Yaoundé to discuss ways to collaborate in the fight against growing security threats along the shared border.
“The visit of this important delegation and the deliberations with their Cameroonian counterparts is a gateway to devise new defence strategies and tactics on how to oust their common enemy Boko Haram and counterattack other forms of threats along their borders, such as cross-border terrorism, organised crimes, and inter-communal violence,” Ministry Beti Assomo said after the meeting.
He further stated that keeping Cameroon and Chad safe from rebels, terrorists, and armed gangs is “synonymous with contributing to stability in sub-Saharan Africa in particular and Africa in general.”
Attacks from either Boko Haram or cross-border crimes, including armed gangs and inter-ethnic conflicts, are a daily occurrence in Chad and the Extreme North Region of Cameroon. They target mainly civilians and wildlife and are able to easily escape capture when chased by Cameroonian or Chadian government troops because of the poorly guarded border.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, since 2014, due to the ongoing violence, namely from extremist groups and conflicts between herders and farmers, more than 3,000 people have died, hundreds of villages have burned to the ground, and over 427,000 people have been forced to flee to neighbouring regions and into Nigeria and Chad. A recent report by MMI confirmed that 169 people had already died since the start of this year as a result of Boko Haram attacks, outnumbering the 116 civilians reported to have been killed because of the Anglophone crisis.
In the meeting, Chad’s defence minister said that both countries should focus primarily on the highway aces of kidnappings for ransom along the border, end cattle theft, and end the slaughter of elephants.
“What also must stop is cross-border criminality that continues to be a threat to peace and makes living conditions difficult for civilians who are living on less than a dollar a day.” He said
Also saying that socioeconomic development along the Cameroon-Chad border has been highly compromised by rampant insecurity.
While Chadian troops have been stationed on both sides of the border over the years, this was the first sit-down meeting with the two Ministers of Defence.
In an interview with VOA, Joseph Vincent Ntuda Ebode, a lecturer in international security and defence at the University of Yaoundé-Soa, said that he didn’t understand why it had taken over 10 years for Cameroon and Chad to organise such a “high-profile security meeting”.
This is particularly important considering Chad’s tumultuous history with offering military aid to neighbouring countries.
In 2015, the Chadian government first offered to actively help Cameroon fight Boko Haram militants after an appeal from President Biya.
However, in 2020, President Idriss Deby suspended external military interventions over frustrations over the lack of “commitment by some allies”.
In June 2022, the Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin was created and made up of 11,000 troops from Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, and Chad. in reverse of the decision to limit joint interventions after the death of President Deby in 2021.
The ministers said that they would enact presidential plans to counter the violence. As of now no plans or when the military operations will begin have been made public
