Cameroonian and Nigerian experts have been meeting in Yaounde since yesterday, April 6 to harmonise their proposals on a Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of Cameroon/Nigeria Joint Cross-border Security Committee. The harmonised agreement expected to be adopted during the ongoing Yaounde meeting will be submitted to the competent authorities of the two countries for signature.

Talking at the opening ceremony of the experts meeting, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Cameroon, Philip Ali Dauda said the decision to establish the Cameroon- Nigeria Joint Cross-border Security Committee was reached during the last Cameroon- Nigeria Joint Commission in Abuja, Nigeria in November 2010. He said the agreement will usher in joint border patrols  that take cognisance of the fact that Nigeria and Cameron share  common maritime and land borders over 1,700 km long. There has been an upsurge in piracy and trans-border crimes especially in the maritime zones of the two countries requiring joint patrols by security forces.

The leader of the Cameroon delegation, the Secretary General of the Ministry of External Relations, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh,  lauded the strengthened and diversified cooperation between Cameroon and Nigeria. He said the experts meeting  comes shortly after the two countries signed  cooperation agreements in electricity interconnectivity, sports and physical education in Yaounde last February 18. The government of Cameroon, he said, pays much attention to cross-border security with Nigeria that is a precondition for trade and socio-economic development of the two countries.

At the end of the meeting today, the experts will adopt the draft agreement setting up the Committee on Cross-border Security between Cameroon and Nigeria. In different workshops, they will also assess the security situation along the Cameroon and Nigeria border. Focus will be on security within the Lake Chad area, the land border, as well as  along the maritime areas of the Gulf of Guinea.