Security crisis worsens in the North
SECURITY CRISIS WORSENS IN THE NORTH
On the night of 22 to 23 January 2025, heavily armed individuals, described as terrorists from the criminal gang Boko Haram, carried out a raid of unprecedented violence in the village called DJIBRIL located in the Mayo Moskota Sub-division. The precise toll of this assault has not yet been established, but it is very heavy: inhabitants massacred, livestock and foodstuffs recently harvested from the fields taken away.
This attack comes just a few days after another one launched against travellers on National Road No 1, not far from Waza.
The very worrying security situation, which was limited until now to repeated attacks by Boko Haram, is worsening with the resurgence of criminal activities by highway robbers, home robberies and especially kidnappings for ransom in the area along the eastern ridge that affects the North and Adamawa regions. This is the case, for example, of the recent kidnapping of a Pastor of the Union of Evangelical Churches of Cameroon (UEEC) in Touboro by armed men. This kidnapping, which is in addition to several others that have affected teachers working in Benue and Faro, has left many families in desolation and plunged rural populations into uncertainty and disarray.
The consequences of these acts of barbarity are dramatic on the economic, social and political levels: several villages that are important agricultural areas are emptying of their populations, the cities are experiencing a population explosion in a context of poverty, youth unemployment and a resurgence of crime. The political context is very tense. Unpopular political figures as much for their inaction as for their mediocre results are engaging in various forms of repression against the protesters: seizing of property, particularly agricultural land, punitive expeditions, assassinations, instrumentalization of ethnic or religious affiliation, etc.
The CRM strongly condemns these multiple attacks against the hardworking and peaceful populations of the Far North, North and Adamaoua Regions. It calls on the Government to take more action and show more political will, particularly by providing more appropriate resources to the defense and security forces to ensure the effective protection of people and property in these regions of our country.
To the families of the victims and to those who live in desolation and fear, we ask them not to give up, because a new Cameroon is possible. Together we will make it happen.
Done in Yaoundé on January 25, 2025
Maurice KAMTO, National President of the CRM