Buhari visits, Cameroon deports 2,000 Nigerians

Twenty-four hours after President Muhammadu Buhari visited the country for talks on how to defeat the common terrorist problem between Nigeria and Cameroon, authorities in that country have deported more than 2,000 Nigerians living there illegally.

This is believed to be part of measures to fight the scourge of the Boko Haram sect, and guide against suicide bombings.

Regional newspaper L’Oeil du Sahel reported on Thursday that about 2,500 Nigerians had been “rounded up” in Kousseri, in the far north of Cameroon, and sent back to their country.

The weekly posted a photo on its Facebook page showing several departing trucks crammed with hundreds of passengers, believed to be Nigerians.

A source close to regional authorities confirmed that “more than 2,000 ‘irregular’ Nigerians have been expelled from Kousseri”.

Mey Aly, an official from a local NGO, said that most of the Nigerians “had fled the atrocities of Boko Haram” to take refuge in Cameroon.

Read also: B’Haram: Buhari in Cameroon to hold talks

Buhari and his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya pledged to strengthen cooperation between their two countries in the fight against the insurgents.

Between July 12 and July 25, Cameroon’s far north, on the border with Boko Haram’s Nigerian strongholds, suffered three suicide attacks — two in the regional capital, Maroua — leaving at least 44 people dead.

The Cameroonian border post at Kousseri — which has been hit by two suicide attacks since June — occupies a strategic position, with just a bridge separating it from Chad’s capital N’Djamena.

Authorities in Cameroon’s far north have taken significant steps to boost security, including banning women from wearing the full face-veil amid fears that suicide bombers could use the garment to conceal explosives.

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