Cameroon's army faces Boko Haram on Nigerian border

Amchide - A deathly silence hangs over the
once lively trading town of Amchide in the far
north of Cameroon, abandoned to the army
by residents terrified of raids by extremists,
Boko Haram.
After several attacks in the past year by the
armed extremists from Nigeria, just across the
western border, the vast majority of residents
have fled.
Houses of clay and brick stand abandoned
with nobody to cook in the courtyards, while
colourful robes and children's laughter are
things of the past.
The sole remaining human presence is a
military one, dug in about 800 metres (875
yards) from the frontier and the lethal threat
on the other side.
"Before, this was a bustling town, with crowds.
Chadians, Cameroonians and Nigerians came
here and traded in all kinds of things," said
Abba, who comes from a nearby village.
Many people in Amchide ran the risk of
atrocities and kidnapping by Boko Haram for
months, but the situation further worsened
when the Islamists in September overran
Banki, the extension of their town on to
Nigerian territory.
'Firing almost every day'
Boko Haram fighters then stepped up bloody
raids inside Cameroon, where they slit the
throats of Christians and Muslims alike. The
movement also launched attacks from their
positions in Nigeria.
"There is firing almost every day," an officer in
Cameroon's elite military Rapid Intervention
Battalion (BIR by its French initials) told AFP at
the scene, asking not to be named for security
reasons.
Several hundred metres (yards) from their
main base, dozens of soldiers on high alert
manned a forward post, some keeping a
lookout behind piled sandbags. Others were
poised to ambush intruders, wary of the
surrounding savannah grass and trees that
offer cover to Boko Haram forces.
On October 15, the Nigerian movement, which
has frequently slaughtered students in its
opposition to Western-style education, carried
out an assault of "unprecedented scale"
against Cameroon's army, said Major Leopold
Nlate Ebale, chief of operations in the border
zone.
Also read: 'Three die' in new Boko
Haram attacks
Coming out of Banki, the extremisys struck at
the military base with heavy artillery, while a
suicide bomber drove a car loaded with
explosives through Amchide. The car blew up
on the outskirts of the base and was followed
by an armoured vehicle and a pick-up truck,
which were both "neutralised", Ebale added.
The fighting that ensued lasted for two days.
The burned-out wrecks of the armoured
vehicle and one of the others have been left
standing by the entrance to the military base.
During the clashes, 107 members of Boko
Haram were killed, together with 86 civilians
and eight soldiers of the BIR, according to
official figures that cannot be independently
confirmed.
Military operations to "clean up" Amchide are
a task rendered harder by the complexities of
the border. "When you go into a house by a
door in Cameroon, you can come out on the
Nigerian side," where Islamists have many
hiding places, an official said.
They're like ghosts
"Boko Haram (fighters) are unpredictable.
They're like ghosts," one soldier said.
Cameroon's army states that in the absence of
"a right of pursuit" into neighbouring
countries, it will never carry out ground attacks
on Nigerian territory. However, several officers
agreed that "for protection in the event of
aggression", they had the right to fire shells
across the border.
The BIR responded to a Boko Haram attack
last Monday by firing 36 shells, one of the
officers said.
In villages of the district, people still try to live
as normally as they can despite the sound of
almost daily blasts and gunfire.
In Kourgui, about 20 kilometres (12 miles)
from Amchide, "we're afraid that Boko Haram
will come this far," elderly villager Oumate
Mohamed said, sitting in the shade of a large
tree.
In recent weeks, "many residents went
through here, they were fleeing violence"
closer to the border, Mohamed explained.
Some decided to stop at Kourgui, but most
headed on towards towns deeper into
Cameroon.
In the arid border territory where growing
millet and cotton are the main tasks for poor
local people, the end to trade with Nigeria
caused by conflict is a tough blow.
"Everything used to come from Nigeria before,
even petrol, but we can't go there now,"
farmer Baba Chetima said, clad in a long
white robe. "People have nothing left."
- AFP