Cameroon arrests three for trafficking arms to Boko Haram

Three men arrested in the Far North on Wednesday were believed to be delivering weapons to the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram from Chad, security and administrative sources said.

Commandos of the Rapid Response Brigade (BIR) and the local police found a large stock of firearms, including a multiple round riffle and rocket launchers, near Goulfey, according to a security source quoted by AFP.

“Three suspects were taken in for questioning, suspected of being among the arms traffickers that supply Boko Haram,” the source said. “The stock of weapons was sizeable, and we think the plan was to bring them through Cameroon before taking them to Nigeria.”

Boko Haram has already killed 1,000 people this year in its brutal campaign against Western education in north east Nigeria that often spills into Cameroon.

The Nigerian army said Thursday that it had killed 11 militants in an assault near the border with Cameroon. Troops were led to the militants’ hideout after some of them were forced out by hunger, said the Nigerian Director of Defence Information, Chris Olukolade.