BokoHaram Curbed? Nigeria Seals Border With Cameroon

Nigeria has sealed a portion of its northeastern border with Cameroon to block the movement of insurgents and other criminal groups, the military said Sunday.
.
The closure has been imposed in Adamawa state, one of three states in the northeast placed under emergency rule in May following waves of attacks by Boko Haram Islamists.
.
The military has launched a major offensive in the area aimed at crushing the Islamist uprising, which has killed thousands since 2009.
.
Nigeria claims that the Islamists have set up bases in sparsely populated areas of its northeastern neighbours — Cameroon, Chad and Niger — and flee across the border after staging attacks to avoid military pursuit.
.
“What I did was completely seal off the borders, no going in, no going out,” said Brigadier General Rogers Iben Nicholas, the top military commander in Adamawa.
.
He said the measure had been in place since Monday and that it has already curtailed “the influx of miscreants (and) terrorist elements” into Nigeria.
.
“Other security agencies like the customs, immigration services, have been told. Our soldiers and police are also there working together to ensure that nothing crosses into Nigeria,” Nicholas said.
.
Despite the state of emergency, Boko Haram has continued to carry out attacks in the northeast, with more than 300 people killed already this year.
.
Adamawa has been less hit by violence than the other affected states, Borno and Yobe, but it is thought to provide key transport routes for the insurgents.
.
The full 2,000-kilometre (1,200-mile) porous border stretches from Borno down to the southern Niger Delta region.
.
Aside from curbing the flow of suspected insurgents, the several-hundred-kilometre closure in Adamawa will also affect traders and other residents.
.
Nicholas said the military was working with traditional rulers on both sides of the border to inform people about the closure.
.
The border closure came after suspected Boko Haram fighters last Saturday stormed the mostly Christian village of Izghe in Borno state, north of Adamawa, killing more than 100.
.
Then on Wednesday, an attack by scores of Boko Haram fighters in Bama, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, killed 60 people.
.
On the same day, the group’s leader Abubakar Shekhau threatened in a video to extend the insurgency to the oil-producing south by attacking the Niger Delta region.
.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday condemned the wave of violence and reiterated Washington’s support for the authorities in Abuja, which includes providing “counter-terrorism assistance”.
.
“The people of northern Nigeria deserve to live free from violence and from terror,” Kerry said in statement.
.
He added: “We stand with the people of Northern Nigeria in their struggle against violent extremism, and remain a committed partner of the Government of Nigeria as it works to root out Boko Haram and associated groups.”