At least five suspected Boko Haram fighters have been arrested at the Minawao refugee camp in Cameroon, a report said, a scary information after other refugee camps were attacked in Nigeria and Cameroon in recent months. The camp hosts over 60, 000 Nigerians who fled the Boko Haram atrocities in Nigeria’s northeast.
The first suspected terrorist was identified by other Nigerian refugees in the camp on 16 April, local newspaper, L’Oeil du Sahel, reported the next day. He was arrested by the military police and taken to the regional capital of Maroua for an investigation.
On Thursday, the newspaper reported that four more suspected Boko Haram fighters had been arrested at the Minawao camp. TheSimonAtebaNews could not have details of the latest arrests but the newspaper headlined its cover “Minawao Camp: A Refuge For Boko Haram?”.
The Minawao camp is located in Mokolo area of Cameroon’s far north, 70 kilometres from the border with Nigeria where the war against Boko Haram is raging. It is administered by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR.
Stranded in the bush in the unfenced camp, the Nigerian refugees have been there for three years, waiting for the war to end to return home. But as years passed, things got worse. About 2.5 million people have been displaced by Boko Haram, more than 2 5,000 others have been massacred in Nigeria in seven years while over 1300 people have been gunned down or bombed to death in Cameroon since 2013, including over 70 soldiers. Many have also died in Niger and Chad, two other countries along with Nigeria, Cameroon, and Benin have joined forces against Boko Haram.
Refugees at the Minawao camp are just a tiny part of the human tragedy that has been created by Boko Haram. But accusations of terrorism by the Cameroonian and Nigerian armies cannot be believed without further verification.
Mr. Simon Ateba, the publisher of TheSimonAtebaNews, was arrested at the Minawao camp in August 28 last year while trying to investigate the living conditions of Nigerians stranded there. He was accused of being a spy for Boko Haram and detained for four days.
Mr. Ateba was only released after protests, long interrogation with security operatives, the secret service and the intervention of long serving, aging President of Cameroon, Paul Biya.