Neighboring countries, Cameroon and Nigeria share several difficulties, including terrorist attacks and secessionist tendencies. An unfavorable context for development, peace and stability which leads the two countries to combine their efforts to face these asymmetric wars, generally logistic, ruinous and costly in human life as well as in financial and material resources.
Presidents Paul Biya of Cameroon and Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria reiterated it again on July 13 in Abuja, during an audience granted by the Nigerian president to the special envoy sent by Yaoundé. The objective is to strengthen cooperation between the two states with a view to eradicating secessionist movements which are rife on both sides.
Referring to separatist tendencies that have been going on for five years in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon, the Nigerian authorities have not hidden their determination to track down all the terrorists who would like to use Nigeria as a rear base for this dirty war which has already killed more than 5,000 people, caused significant material damage and caused the displacement of more than 800,000 people according to corroborating sources.
“Nigeria’s unwavering support for the safeguard of the territorial integrity of Cameroon which must remain one and indivisible”, cannot be traded off, declared President Buhari, especially as “Cameroon and Nigeria must each work for the good. -being of his neighbor. It is in Nigeria’s interest to ensure that Cameroon is stable and that Nigeria will stand firm in supporting Cameroon in this perspective, “he said firmly.
It is important to remember that those who planned secession in the North West and South West regions were arrested in Nigeria before their extradition to Cameroon. The combined actions of the two armies have resulted in the arrest of the separatist arsenal of war on several occasions, including arms, ammunition, explosives and drugs.
Already during the insurrection in Biafra in the 1960s and 1970s, Cameroon had played a decisive role in refusing to constitute a rear base for the irredentists. Support that enabled Nigeria to avoid the partition of its territory, which President Buhari still remembers for whom “the relationship between Nigeria and Cameroon has been very clear since I served in the army. This country gave us the necessary support we needed during the civil war ”. Cameroon continues to support Nigeria to maintain its stability whenever separatist tendencies are reported in the Delta region.
The pooling of efforts between Cameroon and Nigeria in the fight against the terrorist sect Boko Haram has also made it possible to reduce the room for maneuver of the insurgents whose objective of creating a caliphate in this region has ended in bitter failure.
