YAOUNDE—Cameroon would form part of a joint military operation to defeat Boko Haram, the terrorist group responsible for several bombings in Nigeria, including attacks on a UN compound in August and the Nigerian police headquarters in May.

Local media in Nigerian reported on Monday that Nigeria was drafting in Cameroon along with other Lake Chad countries (Chad and Niger) to go after the group, which is believed to be tied with al-Qaeda.

“Intelligence reports in the past weeks have confirmed that members of the sect have training camps in the deserts of Chad and Niger Republic where they receive terrorism trainings from the dreaded al-Qaeda sect,” reported Nigeria’s Daily Punch.

There has been no confirmation from Cameroon military official about the country’s participation. But the punch said some of the soldiers for the joint military operations into the Sahara desert were currently part of the joint-task force in Maiduguri, where the Boko Haram sect has carried out most of its attacks.

The terms of the joint ops are still being finalised, the paper said, quoting senior officials in the Nigerian military.

Cameroon has a highly skilled commando force, the Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR), that has successfully curtailed the activities of high-way robbers with links to armed group in Chad and Central Africa in northern Cameroon.

The group has not been equally successful in the Bakassi region, where it is also deployed to fight off the menace of armed pirates. Talks of another joint operation with Nigeria in this other trouble spot are still to materialise.

Boka Haram shot into the lime light in 2009 with a string of sectarian violence in northern Nigeria. The group main mission is to impose Sharia law in the northern states of Nigeria. They are officially called “Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad” in Arabic, which translate into “People committed to the propagation of the prophet’s teachings and jihad”.

Nigerian security officials now believe the sect runs training camps in Niger and has also recruited Nigeriens into their cause.

The pinnacle of their actions was the bombing of the UN offices in Abuja on 26 August, in which 23 people were killed and more than were 80 injured. In May, Nigeria was shocked after car bombs went off at the police headquarters in Abuja, nearly killing the deputy chief of police.

The punch also reported that a meeting of the Chief of Defence Staffs of the countries in the West African sub region had been summoned to deliberate on international terrorism and the worsening security situation in Nigeria.

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