Cameroon-Chad border partially re-opened

The border between Cameroon and Chad has been partially reopened after it was closed earlier this week, following the attack on a gendarmerie brigade in Kousseri (far-east region) by Boko Haram militants from Nigeria.Traffic has been authorized on the bridge straddling the Logoon River between Cameroon and Chad.

in the wake of Thursday’s border reopening, the authorities have also decided to beef up security with the imposition of a dusk to dawn curfew.

According to security sources, Boko Haram militants who attacked the Kousseri brigade killing four Cameroonians, including to gendarmes, are believed to have crossed from Chad as they attempted to free some of their members being detained in a security unit pending their extradition to Nigeria.

After a series of incursions by Boko Haram insurgents into Cameroonian territory, the Nigerian authorities in February decided to partially close the border with Cameroun to better track down the radical militants.

Boko Haram have vowed to ban western education and impose an Islamist state on Nigeria.

The authorities in Cameroon have scaled up the combing of the border areas, in collaboration with Nigerian security forces on the one hand and the Chadian military on the other.

A few days ago, Cameroon’s security forces intercepted a cache of weapons from Chad bound for Nigeria.

According to some sources, the raid by Boko Haram was aimed at freeing the arms traffickers, who are members of the Islamist sect.