Cameroonian gendarmes Invades Danare Community

Cameroonian gendarmes numbering about 10, on Tuesday morning, invaded Danare community, in Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State, apparently in search of militants fighting the Cameroon government.

The gendarmes were said to have told the natives, who accosted them, that they were looking for militants who took refuge in the community.

Investigations also revealed that since the outbreak of hostilities between the Cameroonian Government and the Southern Cameroon people over the move for secession last year, the gendarmes had invaded Danare, Biajua and Basua Border communities in Boki Local Government Area and sometimes killing innocent Nigerians.

It was learnt that over 3,000 refugees from Cameroun are currently taking refuge in Danare, which borders the Central African country.

Raising the alarm over the recent invasion, a group of Danare indigenes, led by a former Councilor in the Boki Council, Hon. Dauglas Ogar, told journalists, in Calabar, on Tuesday, that the gendarmes stormed the village at about 2:00a.m., Tuesday morning and shooting sporadically in search of the said militants.

This development reportedly caused panic in the community as the natives scampered for safety while a few sustained injuries in the process.
Ogar’s words, “Our people did not sleep on Monday night because gendarmes from Cameroun invaded our community claiming to look for Ambazonia militants. The militants, who have since taken refuge in the surrounding forests, were also shooting and the whole community was in chaos.

“It is important to recall the sad invasion of Danare communities by the Cameroonian soldiers which happened on January 25 this year where more than 80 well armed Cameroonian soldiers with various range of military weapons and arms crossed the international boundary in the Danare-Daddi/Danare-Bodam international border openings and abducted five natives.”

He claimed that the Cameroonian soldiers warned residents of Danare communities to be prepared for their return to carry out a military raid to cleanse the communities of all Ambazonia refugees’ threat to the Cameroon Government.

Ogar continued, “The soldiers threatened to come back to Danare to execute the proscription of Southern Cameroonians taking asylum in Danare as a result of the ongoing Anbazonia crises which resulted in the mass influx of refugees from neighboring Southern Cameroon villages to Danare communities and many other Nigerian border communities.

“This is a calculated offensive from Cameroon military on Nigeria. They have shown outright defiance to supremacy of Nigerian territorial sovereignty and blighted the consequences of crossing the international boundary to carrying out all sort of intimidation and harassment on already alarmed citizens of Danare, with warnings of their further assault,” he said.

Maintaining that the current situation in their community points to how weak the Cameroon Government sees Nigeria and its security apparatuses, Ogar said: “They have weighed the vulnerability of defenseless residents of Danare and concluded that it was capable of inflicting mass dead on the citizens of Nigeria and refugees of Southern Cameroon hosted in Danare.”

According to him, the breach of the country’s internal security posed a serious danger to the peace and safety of residents, the refugees and the entire Boki communities in Nigeria.
Reacting, the state’s Security Adviser, Mr. Jude Ngaji, said the matter was being handled at the highest level of government in the country.

“The issue has gone beyond the Police and the Nigerian Army has just deployed a battalion to the area. No Nigerian has been killed and as you know, this is an international issue which is being handled at the highest level of government,” Ngaji said.