Cameroon Arrests Three Suspected Boko Haram Weapon Suppliers

Cameroon said on Thursday it had arrested three men suspected of being arms traffickers that supply Boko Haram.
Two Cameroon soldiers standing guard at the frontier post of Garoua-Boulai, March 13, 2014 (AFP/File, Reinnier Kaze)
This information has been disclosed to the AFP by a Cameroonian police official on condition of anonymity.
The men were caught in the far north of the country on Wednesday, March 26 near the border with Nigeria where the Islamist group has been waging a brutal armed insurgency.

"Members of the BIR (an elite rapid-response unit of Cameroon's army) and the police found a significant stock of arms including a kalashnikov and rocket launchers near Goulfey," the official said.


He did not state where the men were from, but said the arms had come from Chad.

"The stock of weapons was sizeable, and we think the plan was to bring them through Cameroon before taking them to Nigeria."
The suspects were taken in for questioning, he added.

A source close to the town's administration disclosed that both the weapons and the men were taken to Maroua, the regional capital.

Some of the Boko Haram insurgents are thought to have fled to neighbouring Cameroon since the Nigerian army launched an offensive in May last year.

Nigeria recently appealed to its neighbours for help in trying to eradicate the group.

This month alone six suspected fighters and one Cameroonian soldier have been killed in clashes after Boko Haram infiltrated into Cameroon. -