Children Rescued in West Africa by International Force

Five children who had been rescued from Boko Haram were given to Cameroon on Thursday by a multinational group of soldiers from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. Many children are said to have been rescued last year during operations against the extremist organisation, according to the Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission. The parents of the children are being sought after by Cameroonian authorities.

The five youngsters who were turned over to Cameroonian authorities on Thursday, according to the Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin, or MNJTF, which is battling the jihadist group, were saved by Chadian soldiers.

In the Far North region of Cameroon, near the borders with Chad and Nigeria, in the town of Mora, the children were turned over to government representatives.

The task team claimed that Chadian troops discovered the five boys in the dangerous Lake Chad region, who appeared unclean, exhausted, hungry, and ill.

The teenagers were held captive by Boko Haram for a number of months, according to the task force commander, Nigerian Major General Abdul Kalifa Ibrahim. He spoke on CRTV, the national station of Cameroon.

Despite being kidnapped by Boko Haram, the victims managed to escape, according to Ibrahim. “Soldiers from Chad learned that the kids are Cameroonian. We’re planning to perform further procedures. We are hoping that Boko Haram will publicly declare that enough is enough.”

25 of the 60 children brought into Cameroon by the joint forces in the last three weeks, according to the African nation, were either saved by the military during operations or managed to flee Boko Haram camps and hand themselves in to Nigerian, Chadian, and Cameroonian forces battling the jihadists.

In a military operation that resulted in the deaths of 800 militants in the lake Chad basin, the task force claims that several children were saved last year. For almost eight months, the kids were detained in Chad for psychological care and to find out where they came from.

According to the authorities, the children’s ages range from 9 to 17.

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Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of Cameroon’s Far North area, reports that President Paul Biya of Cameroon has ordered that the children get food, medical care, and education while their parents are being located. He communicated with VOA using a messaging app from Maroua, the Far North region of Cameroon.

According to Bakari, the northern cities of Meri and Mora, which are close to the borders with Chad and Nigeria, are home to well-built DDR centres for Cameroon. He claims that the kids will attend a school at the DDR facility in Mora. According to Bakari, medical professionals from Cameroon are at the DDR centres prepared to care for the children’s medical requirements.

According to Bakari, more than 2,000 former Boko Haram fighters, including 950 Nigerians and roughly 100 Chadians, successfully took up residence in Cameroon in 2021.

In an operation known as Lake Sanity, which took place between March 28 and June 4 in 2022, the Multinational Joint Task Force reported that 3,000 forces killed 800 jihadis on the islands of Lake Chad and in the surrounding regions.

Several hundred youngsters who were saved during the operations were the subject of an investigation, according to force officials.

The military claims that some of the children’s parents may have perished in conflicts with jihadist organisations or may still be present in Boko Haram camps as fighters or hostages.

Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad are all located in the basin of Lake Chad.

Although attacks have been significantly curtailed, according to the multinational force that includes forces from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad, Boko Haram and another organisation, the Islamic State West Africa Province, have set up camps in the enormous Lake Chad basin.

Since 2009, when the fighting turned into an armed war with Nigerian government troops, 3 million people have fled their homes in Cameroon, Nigeria, and Chad, according to the U.N.