NIGERIA-VIOLENCE/CAMEROON TRUCKS Cameroon economy hit after Boko Haram attacks on major transport routes

Record ID: 237237

  • Title: NIGERIA-VIOLENCE/CAMEROON TRUCKS Cameroon economy hit after Boko Haram attacks on major transport routes
  • Date: 13th March 2015
  • Summary: MAROUA, CAMEROON (MARCH 10, 2015) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HEAVY DUTY TRUCKS PARKED VARIOUS OF TRUCKS WAITING TO TRAVEL IN CONVOY FROM MAROUA (SOUNDBITE) (French) TRUCKERS SYNDICATE REPRESENTATIVE, BOUBA ABDURAMAN, SAYING: "The situation has deteriorated because the road is not as accessible anymore due to the insecurity, so all drivers must come and park thei
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cameroon
  • Country: Cameroon
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3LN1R1OJG2862EWF2IV5R2DDF
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Huddled together, trucks carrying everything from essential food supplies to timber and construction materials wait in the northern Cameroon town of Maroua for a military escort in order to continue their journey to deliver their cargo.
    An Islamist insurgency that has wreaked havoc in neighbouring Nigeria has seeped through the porous border into Cameroon, with repeated attacks on trucks servicing the supply route to Chad.
    Repeated attacks from Boko Haram fighters, known in the area for killing drivers, stealing their truck-loads and burning the trucks, have essentially closed down vital transport links between Chad and Cameroon.
    "The situation has deteriorated because the road is not as accessible anymore due to the insecurity, so all drivers must come and park their trucks here," a representative of the Truckers' Syndicate in Maroua, Bouba Abduraman, said.
    Boko Haram have killed thousands in their bloody campaign to carve out an Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, and they have taken their fight outside the country's borders.
    Neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger have all been affected, with incursions into border villages and transport routes.
    Maroua and Kousseri are two towns located in the in far north of Cameroon, also considered a gateway to N'djamena, the capital of neighboring Chad.
    The isolated region is most easily accessed by national highway number one, running along the border of Nigeria.
    But fewer and fewer drivers are willing to risk their lives to make the journey.
    "You have to search among the few truckers who still want to take to the road and with the insecurity, there is a rise in prices, from 15,000 (30 USD) to 24,000 (48 USD) per tonne. So you see, there is the price rise, and the money is there, but nobody wants to drive anymore, in view of the insecurity on the road between Maroua and Kousseri," Abduraman said.
    The transport routes are used for sending fruit and vegetables up from Douala and the southern Cameroonian provinces to the more arid areas in the north, and the desert regions of Chad.
    Timber and construction materials are also sent up to Chad on this route.
    Now drivers are opting for much longer, more secure routes on rougher roads, resulting in more expensive and arduous journeys.
    "Yesterday we left Kousseri at seven in the morning. We went through Chad, Bongor, the Fianga crossroads (intersection), we came in from the Hayale village side before arriving here. We got here at 18:00, after being on the road the whole day. Before it would take us three hours to travel from Maroua to Kousseri, now it takes us 7 to 18 hours," Kousseri-based business owner Mahamat Tom said.
    The hike in price puts additional pressure on a local economy already under strain because of recurring attacks and the influx of thousands of refugees from neighbouring Nigeria.
    Insecurity has also affected civilian transport and tourism along this axis. Bus routes have been altered or stopped altogether.
    "We have stopped doing this route (along national highway number one) at Touristique Express. It's because of the insecurity which really reigns there. Since the day one of our buses was attacked at Double, since that precise moment the management decided that as long as there is insecurity we are going to suspend this route," local travel agent Mohaman Saihou said.
    As neighbouring countries affected by the insurgency scramble to find a solution, people are left in fear and suffering the consequences.
    "It's very difficult, it's true, because first of all we can't find a car, and even if you see someone who is going that way, it's too expensive," local resident Sokna Service said.
    Chad has deployed some 2,500 troops to Nigeria's border regions with Cameroon and Niger as part of a regional effort to tackle Boko Haram's six-year insurgency, which is threatening the stability of the impoverished region.
    Chad's battle-hardened troops have won a series of clashes, seizing towns and pushing back Boko Haram's fighters from the border region with Niger and Cameroon.
    But the fight is far from over, as Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State militant group that controls tracts of Syria and Iraq, calling on its supporters to fight in Africa.
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