A total of 183 former combatants of the Boko Haram terror group have been received at the Meri transit centre in the Far North region of Cameroon.
Among the new arrivals at the transit centre were about 50 ex-combatants who surrendered on July 19, 2021. This brings the total number of former Boko Haram fighters received at the Meri centre within the last two months to 574.
“On July 19, 2021 alone, 34 former Boko Haram fighters were received at the Meri transit centre in Diamare division,” Oumar Bichair, the Chief of the Regional Centre, revealed Tuesday July 20, 2021.
“Their first night on Cameroonian soil was passed in the Regional Bureau of the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reinsertion (NCDDR) of the Far North region in Mora.”
“One of the reasons we have been recording more and more desertions from the ranks of Boko Haram in the transit centre is without doubt the acceptance by the ex-fighters of the hand of peace extended by the President of the Republic,” Oumar Bichair added.
Within the context of the Feast of Tabaski celebrated on July 20, 2021, Fai Yengo Francis, the National Coordinator of NCDDR, sent one of his close collaborators, Dieudonne Nkolo Zanga to meet all the ex-combatants in the Meri centre.
“The envoy of Fai Yengo Francis did not go to meet the ex-combatants with empty hands because of the Tabaski Feast,” an eyewitness at the meeting said.
“Nkolo Zanga took along sleeping materials, textile materials and other clothes, cartons of mosquito nets, high consumption foodstuff notably bags of rice, cartons of vegetable oil and other gifts.”
Zanga also seized the opportunity to hand over report cards to some of the former fighters who had earlier registered at the primary school that had been opened to welcome former Boko Haram combatants.
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