Handlende i det nordlige Cameroun er de uskyldige ofre i Nigerias kamp mod den militante islamistiske Boko Haram-bevægelse. Det rammer både importen og eksporten.
YAOUNDE, 29 April 2013 (IRIN): Tighter security in Cameroon’s Far North Region due to the widening threat posed by Nigeria-based radical Islamist militia Boko Haram is stifling cross-border trade, hurting livelihoods and raising fear among civilians.
Cameroon has stepped up security over the Boko Haram (BH) threat. In November 2011, Nigeria shut its border with Cameroon, prompting Yaoundé to bolster security in the largely Muslim Far North Region, close dozens of Koranic schools and hand over suspected BH members to Nigeria, which reopened the border in 2012.
Despite the intensified security, suspected BH militants on 19 February abducted seven French tourists, including four children, from a national park in the Far North Region, freeing them two months later.
Cross-border trade sustains the local economy in the Far North Region which sells onions, rice, maize, livestock and other agricultural goods to Nigeria, and imports sugar, cement, textile and electronics.
“Tight border security and checks are making business impossible for some of us. This was worsened by the kidnapping of [the French] tourists. Today all the goods must be checked before entry, and taxes are so high,” said Doudou Yaouba, a trader in Maroua, the regional capital.
Yaouba, who exports groundnuts to Nigeria’s Borno State and returns with sugar and textiles, said he was thinking of starting another business due to the security restrictions.
The region also depends on inferior quality petrol locally known as `zua-zua’ which is smuggled in from Nigeria. Strict border controls have caused its price to rise.
“There are so many border checkpoints and it is very difficult for `zua-zua’ suppliers to get through. Petrol now sells at 600 [CFA] francs a litre compared to 400 francs before the crisis,” said Joel Alim, a petrol trader in Maroua.
Fertilizer imports have also ceased after the Nigerian authorities banned production and distribution over fears that BH was using fertilizer to make bombs, Mahamat Abakar, an official at Cameroon’s Ministry of External Relations, told IRIN.
The cross-border cattle trade has also taken a hit owing to the tightened security. “More than 1000 cattle are traded into Nigeria weekly from Cameroon but the movement of herds has been very slow and is even blocked at certain points by Nigerian security,” said Maroua cattle trader Ousmanou Mamadou.
“Less than half the normal cattle supply into Nigeria is possible, and only through very difficult terrain. Recently more than 800 cattle were blocked from crossing the Nigerian border in Kotokol,” he added.
Abakar said the government had to negotiate the reopening of the border following pleas by locals.
“People living near the border requested the Cameroon government to intervene in the decision by Nigeria to close the border because they were facing a very severe impact from the closure,” said Abakar.
“The border was reopened in February 2012 after negotiations with Nigeria. Cameroon assured Nigeria that its own side of the border is secure after 600 soldiers were deployed to the region.”
Cameroon wary
Læs hele artiklen: http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97942/Boko-Haram-threat-chokes-trade-with-Cameroon
