Boko Haram sends girl bombers to Cameroon
YAOUNDE, 1 Apr - (ANA) - Outside Nigeria, Cameroon has been hardest hit by Boko Haram, which now operates out of bases in the Mandara Mountains, Sambisa Forest, and Lake Chad - areas straddling the borders between Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger. Since August 2014, the group has carried out 336 attacks in Cameroon, according to the Cameroonian army, which has lost 57 of its men defending the north. Of 34 recorded suicide bombings killing 174 people, 80 percent were carried out by girls and young women aged 14 to 24 years. Girls abused as sex slaves by the group are psychologically damaged and, therefore, more vulnerable, the army says. Boko Haram also uses girls because they are thought less likely to arouse suspicion, although that may be changing. "The goal now is to stop Boko Haram incursions into villages, stop them from planting IEDs [improvised explosive devices], and stop suicide bombings," said Lieutenant-Colonel Felix Tetcha, a senior officer in the army's operation against Boko Haram. Cameroon has thrown vast resources into protecting the north. Nearly 10,000 of its troops are deployed against Boko Haram. The army's Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR) consists of its most professional and best-equipped soldiers, and patrols a high-risk 400km stretch of the border with Nigeria. The US military backs them with equipment, training and intelligence gathered from American drones flown out of a base in the town of Garoua. A small US military camp was reportedly seen inside another BIR base in nearby Maroua. Still, the terrain is mountainous and Boko Haram has rigged many roads with explosives designed to kill soldiers. Army officers are convinced that some fighters from Boko Haram, which pledged allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) last year, have been trained at ISIL camps in Libya. Armed incursions by Boko Haram fighters have dropped. But the army does not have enough soldiers to deploy in every town in northern Cameroon, and suicide bombers strike regularly, often several times in a single week. "The border is under control, but it's still very porous," said Lieutenant-Colonel Emile Nlaté Ebalé, head of operations and logistics for the BIR's mission in the north.(ANA)

FA/ANA/1 April 2016--------