Cameroon arrests three for trafficking arms to Boko Haram

YAOUNDÉ (AFP) – Cameroon said
on Thursday it had arrested
three suspected arms dealers
believed to be linked to Nigeria's
militant Islamist group Boko
Haram.

Also some other suspected
terrorists were also arrested
while attempting to escape into
Cameroon through Taraba and
Gumti, Adamawa State by the
Nigerian Joint Military Task Force.

The men were caught in the far
north of the country on
Wednesday, near the border with
Nigeria where the group has
been waging a brutal armed
insurgency.

"Members of the BIR (an elite
rapid-response unit of
Cameroon's army) and the police
found a significant stock of arms
including a kalashnikov and
rocket launchers near Goulfey," a
Cameroonian police official told
AFP, on condition of anonymity.

Suspected terrorists arrested
while attempting to escape into
Cameroon through Taraba and
Gumti, Adamawa State.
He did not state where the men
were from, although he said the
arms had come from Chad.

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"Three suspects were taken in
for questioning, suspected of
being among the arms traffickers
that supply Boko Haram," he said.
"The stock of weapons was
sizeable, and we think the plan
was to bring them through
Cameroon before taking them to
Nigeria."

Both the weapons and the men
were taken to Maroua, the
regional capital, a source close to
the town's administration said.
Boko Haram is fighting a bloody
insurgency in the majority-
Muslim north of Nigeria, with the
National Emergency Management
Agency saying this week that
more than 1,000 people have
been killed in the violence so far
this year.
Some of the group's fighters are
thought to have fled to
neighbouring Cameroon since
the Nigerian army launched an
offensive in May last year.

Nigeria recently appealed to its
neighbours for help in trying to
eradicate the group.
Already this month, six suspected
fighters and one Cameroonian
soldier have been killed in
clashes after Boko Haram
infiltrated into neighbouring
Cameroon.

More so the Nigerian Joint
Military Task Force arrested
suspected terrorists while
attempting to escape into
Cameroon through Taraba and
Gumti, Adamawa State .
The suspects were said to have
come out of hiding in the forest
due to hunger in their make shift
camps.

Those that were apprehended
led the Nigerin troops to other
hideouts. Seven terrorists died,
while a large number of
Improvised Explosive Devices,
IEDs, and rifles were recovered
including over 70 motorcycles.
Similar encounter in Gombi also
led to the death of four other
terrorists.