Cameroon has announced the death sentence of 89 Boko Haram fighters, a Nigerian militant group, according to a judicial source. They were convicted of carrying out terror attacks in Cameroon’s northern region along Nigeria.
“We have been waiting for this decision for a long time now,” said a brigade commander.
Militants were detained in the Far North Region of Cameroon, said the judge. Moreover, 1,000 other militants are yet to be taken to trials, reports AA. The executions are the first since an anti-terror law was enacted in 2014.
Boko Haram is an Islamist group based in the north-eastern part of Nigeria. It was founded in 2002 and has launched its militant operation in 2009. It is also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. It is linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and call itself a western African province of it. Until now the group has killed around 20,000 people, displacing 2.3 million from their homes.
Cameroonian soldiers on Monday also killed 20 Boko Haram militants in a raid carried out in northern Nigeria. They were killed in the Nigerian town of Djibril; 10 km from the Cameroon border.
Newsweek reports that Cameroon along with Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Benin, has joined “8,700-strong Multi-National Joint Task Force” to wipe out the group’s existence.
Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said that around 15 cases of suicide bombings have surfaced since the beginning of the year in Cameroon. Last month, Cameroonian soldiers said to have unshackled the stronghold of Boko Haram in the town of Goshi in northeastern Nigeria.
In August 2015, ten Boko Haram members were executed in Chad. They were convicted of carrying out twin bomb attacks in the capital N’djamena. The attacks claimed 28 lives including army personnel and four militants.
Moreover, in October 2015, US President Barak Obama promised to send 300 military troops to Cameroon to plan and execute anti-terror operations against the group.
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