Boko Haram
It is dry season in the Far North and that means the arrival of 35-plus-degrees heat, a swarm of giant black flies and the threat of disease outbreaks.
On the list of seasonal worries this year, residents here are adding a possible spike in Boko Haram strikes.
“The end of the rains means that the terrain is passable almost everywhere outlaws like Boko Haram can go,” says Alioum Amadou, the Lamido of Guidigis.
Most of the Far North is flat sandy unoccupied territory covered by scanty shrubs, most of which dry off in the dry season. Once the rains go away, nearly all the rivers dry up, creating new routes far away from watched bridges and security check points. You can literally point your car or bike in any direction and start racing.
“This is really worrying,” says Amadou, whose kingdom near the Chadian border is not considered a security red-zone, yet is under the watch of soldiers and community self-defence groups.
“We are not sleeping. We have two, three divisions that are preoccupying [but] when the neighbour’s house is burning, start pouring water on yours.”
Bracing up
Boko Haram has already conducted at least two deadly attacks, including a suicide attacks inside and near Cameroon, since October, when the dry season begins in earnest.
In one attack on 18 October, they killed an army captain and wounded three soldiers during a gunfight at Limani, a border village near Mora. The army said it killed 10 assailants.
At least 38 people, including five bomb carriers, died in a suicide attack in the Chadian town of Baga Solo, which shares similar seasonal conditions with norther Cameroon, this month. Fifty-one people were wounded in the attack. Through government-led, private, collective and individual actions, security is being stepped up across the region, where the market for metal detectors and demand for private guards has soured.
Banks, schools and even roadside restaurants now have red and white security tapes around their facilities and idling individuals frequently attract suspicion.
In one of the most visible pre-emptive moves, the United Nations is building a second concrete fence and has mounted 1.5-meter-thick sandbags outside its multi-agency compound in Maroua.
Armed soldiers recently mounted a security check outside the city’s international airport, manually searching luggage and vehicles.
And, deep long trenches now surround the Salack command centre of the Rapid Response Brigade (BIR, in French), the elite force at the forefront of the fight against Boko Haram.
Female bomb carriers
The common fear here is that suicide bombers could easily sneak into crowded areas like markets, mosques and churches or hit strategic targets like military installations just to make a point.
Terrors swept through the entire region after two separate suicide bomb explosions killed at least 34 people last July in Maroua, the regional capital previously considered the safest place in the region.
Once the city’s innocents, teen girls and young women in loose gowns and hair covering have since the attacks come under intense scrutiny, at checkpoints or when they walk into crowded places.
Boko Haram has used young women in all their suicide attacks in Cameroon and the majority of those in Nigeria and Chad.
“Women are the unintended victims of Boko Haram’s new tactics,” says an official of the regional representative of the ministry of women empowerment. “Now, people see a young woman and the first thing they see is a suicide bomber,” says the official, who demanded anonymity because she lacked clearance to speak to the media.
Frequently, young women are attacked and chased out of markets and other gatherings, simply for looking like they could be carrying bombs, according to a driver called Yaouba.
Exodus
Amid the rising fear of human bomb carriers blowing themselves up, many people have simply left town and moved to the south of the country, says Yaouba. “That is why the streets are empty,” he explains. “No one wants to step out after six. Many have left and gone to Garoua and even Yaounde and Douala because it is not safe [here].”
Many civil servants, relief workers and humanitarian contractors say they have sent their spouses and children south, where they believe they are safer. A few organisations have only essential staff on the ground.
But most of the movement has been from the Nigerian borders to the hinterlands like Guidiguis. More than 96,000 people have been displaced since the crises started, estimates the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
According to a security expert, border towns are now considered level-five risk, which means travellers there must get special government permission and a “war escort”. Level-six is the highest.
Last year, UN workers did not need security escort to some parts of the Far North, now a level-four security risk. Today, travelling UN staff must seek military protection anywhere in the region and sit through a mandatory security briefing.
Weather effect
In spite of such measures, fewer people are travelling to the Far North or anywhere close these days.
The dry season here coincides with the hunting season, which usually brought poachers from all over the world. With its wild game and spectacular mountains, tourism was handy to drive the economy when everything else bogged down in the heat.
This year, instead of waiting to extend their legendary hospitality to seasonal guests, the people of the Far North are brazing up for Boko Haram’s next strike.
