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The countries around Lake Chad in Central Africa say they are expanding a joint task force to combat arms trafficking, terrorism and cross-border attacks as regional tensions escalate.
The conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR) and the insurgency in northern Nigeria are having a regional impact, pushing refugees, weapons and violence into neighboring countries.
In response, defense and military chiefs from the six-member Lake Chad Basin Commission met in Cameroon and approved a multinational military task force to act against militant threats. Cameroon Defense Minister Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o said the meeting was a sort of “shock therapy” to prompt Lake Chad Basin member states to address how best to tackle growing threats and security challenges.
Cameroon has been hit particularly hard by chaos in the CAR and Boko Haram attacks in northern Nigeria. Refugees from both countries have streamed into Cameroon.
Nigerian-born Sanusi Imran Abdullah, executive secretary for the Lake Chad Basin Commission, said the new task force’s headquarters will be in the town of Baga in Nigeria’s Borno state — the home state of Boko Haram.
“Baga is the institution or the place that is fully prepared to accommodate the headquarters,” he said. “As you know, there are buildings there, there are infrastructures there, and there is no need to build a new place.” Borno is one of three Nigerian states in which the government declared a state of emergency in May 2013 and has deployed thousands of troops in an effort to crush the Boko Haram insurgency.
Cameroon, Chad the CAR, Libya, Niger and Nigeria agreed that the initial mandate of the new task force will be to patrol the Lake Chad region, conduct military operations against arms dealers and suspected terrorists, and to facilitate free movement.
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