Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari arrived in neighbouring Cameroon on Wednesday for talks on how
to combat the escalating regional threat from Boko Haram Islamists. Security
was tight for the 24-hour visit, after a surge of Boko Haram violence in
Cameroon including an unprecedented series of five suicide bombings in the far
north.
President Buhari at the
Joint Base Andrews Airport in Washington, DC.
Presidential guard
soldiers were posted on rooftops of houses and along the route from the airport
to the presidential palace in Yaounde, while vehicles armed with machine-guns
patrolled the streets and access to the hotel where Buhari will stay was
blocked.
The trip comes a day
after Nigeria vowed that a new regional force tasked with fighting the jihadists
would go into action soon.
Nigeria’s presidency
said Buhari’s talks with Cameroonian President Paul Biya were part of his
“ongoing effort to build a more effective regional coalition against Boko
Haram”. Boko Haram has stepped up its attacks since Buhari took office in May,
unleashing a wave of violence that has claimed 800 lives in just two months.
The Nigerian president
has already visited neighbouring Chad and Niger, which have also suffered from
attacks by the Islamist fighters. Nigerian military spokesman Major General
Chris Olukolade told AFP on Tuesday that the new regional force would be
operational “any moment from now”, without giving a specific date.
The 8,700-strong
Multi-National Joint Task Force, drawing in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and
Benin, is expected to be more effective than the current alliance in the battle
to end Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency that has claimed some 15,000 lives. Cameroon
itself also announced Tuesday it would be sending 2,000 more troops to the
north to take on Boko Haram.
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