The Russian Government is reportedly planning to supply modern and sophisticated weaponry to the Cameroonian Army to help it to better fight the Nigeria-based terrorist group Boko Haram.
Russian Ambassador to Cameroon Nikolay Ratsiborinskiy was quoted by The Cubic Lane as saying on national radio that the country will deliver ‘weapons and [the] latest generation of the most sophisticated systems’.
The equipment will include ‘artillery guns, air protection, anti-aircraft missiles and cannons, armoured trucks and other equipment and armaments’, Ratsiborinskiy added.
Ratsiborinskiy also said to AllAfrica: “We may expect the arrival of the most modern and state-of-the-art Russian equipment and arms for Cameroonian Armed Forces, as well as training of army officers in Russia.”
The announcement comes as Boko Haram insurgents abducted dozens of people, many of them children, from two villages in north Cameroon on 18 January.
The assault on the Maki and Mada villages in the Tourou district near Mokolo city left three people dead, and follows Chad’s decision to deploy a contingent of soldiers to northern Cameroon to combat Boko Haram in Cameroon and Nigeria.
Cameroon Far North Region governor Mijiyawa Bakar was quoted by CNN as saying that the first contingent of Chadian soldiers arrived in a convoy of more than 400 vehicles, with a second wave of soldiers expected to arrive shortly.
Cameroon Defence Ministry spokesperson colonel Didier Badjeck said the Chadian soldiers arrived with tanks, armoured vehicles and other military equipment.
Cameroon recently claimed that the terrorist group attacked a military base in Kolofata in the far north, leaving 143 ‘terrorists’ and one Cameroonian soldier dead.
Having seized control of several towns and villages in north-east Nigeria, Boko Haram has begun expanding its operational zone into some of the country’s neighbours.
Germany has also provided more than 100 military vehicles to Cameroon, The Cubic Lane reported.