The performance of Cameroon’s Defence Forces against armed groups from neighbouring countries is thanks to patriotic youth protecting their fatherland.
President Paul Biya was not mistaken when during his February 10, 2016 address to the youth he mentioned the glaring example of patriotic love showed by young soldiers of the Defence Forces who for two years have been protecting our country from the terrorist threat.
“They are sustained and driven by patriotic love, often to the point of sacrificing their lives,” the Head of State said. Little did he know that the next day Cameroon’s Special Forces would, under the Multinational Joint Task Force, undertake an operation against Boko Haram’s stronghold in the Nigerian locality of Ngoshe According to government’s spokesman and Communication Minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, two young officers and several soldiers lost their lives heroically.
At the head of the leading company of the Special Forces moving towards Ngoshe, 31-year old Captain Pipwoh Yari Emmanuel entered into a violent battle with Boko Haram terrorists positioned on the road, five kilometres from the locality. The young Captain and his men opened fire dislodging the ambush, destroying two armoured vehicles, 40 enemy motorcycles and neutralizing over a dozen criminals. Captain Yari died after sustaining injury caused by a bullet from the enemy. The victorious assault by Cameroon’s Special Forces on Ngoshe has made waves across the world as 162 Boko Haram terrorists were neutralised, four artisanal mine factories dismantled and over a hundred hostages freed.
It was while another young valiant officer, 39-year Lieutenant Colonel Kwene Ekwele Beltus Honoré was leading freed hostages on February 14, 2016 to hand over to the Nigerian authorities in neighbouring town of Pulka, that his lead vehicle stepped on a landmine leading to his injury and death later for the love of his nation.
That episode is just the recent in a series of heroic and patriotic moves by valiant soldiers. On November 28, 2015, two soldiers chased two young female Boko Haram suicide-bombers in the locality of Dabanga, in the Logone and Chari Division of the Far North Region. The two had no alternative but to explode their vests. Earlier in the locality of Fotokol on November 21 2015, soldiers had chased three female su
icide bombers who exploded their vests one after the other. Sources on the ground say the local population increasingly inspired by the patriotic resilience of Cameroonian soldiers at the warfront also spurred collaboration with Defence Forces and efficiency of local vigilante groups.
