Nigeria Seeks Cameroon’s Help In Fighting Boko Haram

Nigeria says it needs help from Cameroon to police their shared border as it seeks to win a drawn-out battle to crush Boko Haram Islamist militants, a Nigerian military official said.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s military crackdown announced in May has driven Boko Haram fighters back into the north towards the border with Niger and into the remote hills bordering Cameroon to the east.


But Boko Haram fighters have proved resilient. At least 70 civilians have been killed in attacks on villages in Borno state, north east Nigeria in recent days.

“We really need the collaboration and support of Cameroon to completely silence the Boko Haram Islamist sect,” General J.B. Samuel, head of the Nigerian delegation for the Cameroon-Nigeria trans-border security committee, told reporters on Wednesday at a meeting of the committee.

A Cameroonian official for the region said that his country had already taken precautionary measures to strengthen security along the Nigerian border, without providing details.

The 1,700 km (1,060 mile) border between Nigeria and Cameroon stretches from the Atlantic coast to Lak