Yaounde steps up security alert in NW & SW

Following fatal attacks on military positions last week, described as terrorist attacks, with the brutal killing of four gendarme officers in two days, Yaounde seems to be withdrawing gendarme officers deployed in parts of the NW region to contain unrests from Anglophone grievances there and in the SW, and replacing them with highly combative special forces, the rapid intervention battalion, BIR.

            Late afternoon Tuesday, half a dozen truckloads of gendarmes were seen leaving Bamenda and a couple of hours later, nearly criss-crossing with them, four seventy-seater busloads of BIR were seen heading towards Bamenda via the West region just before dusk.

            It is understood that in situations of degrading security, security forces are deployed in graduated order; starting with the quasi-paramilitary police, through the paramilitary gendarmes, to the regular army, and finally the Special Forces, the BIR.

            On Tuesday morning, a military helicopter (Chopper) flew at low altitude, circling parts of Bamenda several times, appearing like it was combing the city in search of something. The Chopper is understood to have hyper-sensitive cameras and sensors to detect ground movements in thick forests and military-type equipment hidden on the ground. The manoeuvre suggested they were either doing routing checks or responding to hints of suspicious movements.

            The helicopter flights came barely minutes after the BIR entered town after a resistance trek over several kilometers (marche command) believed to have started from Wum, in Menchum division.

            Following the shooting to death of three gendarmes in the NW, it was reported that gendarme officers habitually guarding public buildings and other sensitive places in Bamenda, were replaced by police and military officers.