The countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission – Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Cameroun – have begun deploying troops for a new Regional Intelligence Fusion Unit that will hopefully stem the tide of the Boko Haram menace.
The deployment is sequel to the meeting of Ministers of Defence, Chiefs of Defence Staff and Chiefs of Security of the member countries and a non-member, Benin, in Niamey in July.
“We discussed the current security situation and the deployment of troops by member countries as agreed by the heads of state. Each country is to give an equipped troop, battalion to the Multinational Joint Task Force”, disclosed Engr. Sanusi Imran Abdullahi, Executive Secretary, Lake Chad Basin Commission.
The LCBC executive secretary disclosed that even at the time of security meeting “Niger and Chad had already deployed their battalions at locations within their countries. Of course, Nigerian troops are already there in Baga, more than even a Battalion”.
He said it was only Cameroon which was at that time preparing to deploy her contingent. He was hopeful, however that by the end of this end of the month as agreed at the extra ordinary summit, “Cameroon should have deployed their own contingent of a battalion within their border in the Lake Chad Basin until the legal arrangements are finalised for the operation of the force together to work across borders.
”A new Regional Intelligence Fusion Unit, RIFU, has since become operational. Various forms of assistance have been received at bilateral and multilateral levels from our development partners and friends in terms of training.
“Most of these initiatives were sound but regrettably, resulted in certain inconveniences which have raised questions about the balance that we must strike between our commitment to democratic values, our interests in security and other national priorities”, he added.
The LCBC boss also revealed that the President of Benin Republic, Dr Boni Yayi, had promised to deploy a battalion which he lauded as “a plus to us, the member states.