France to return Benin artworks by 2021: minister

Yahoo – AFP, December 16, 2019

President Macron pledged last year to hand back 26 artefacts "without delay" in
a landmark decision that has piled pressure on other former colonial powers to
restore looted artworks to their countries of origin (AFP Photo/GERARD JULIEN)

Cotonou (AFP) - France will return artworks taken from Benin during the colonial conquest of the region by the start of 2021, culture minister Franck Riester said Monday on a visit to the West African country.

President Emmanuel Macron pledged last year to hand back 26 artefacts "without delay" in a landmark decision that has piled pressure on other former colonial powers to restore looted artworks to their countries of origin.

The pieces -- including a royal throne -- were seized by French troops over a century ago and have been housed at the Quai Branly museum in Paris.

Riester said the artworks would be returned "in the course of 2020, perhaps at the beginning of 2021" as he met with Benin's president Patrice Talon in Cotonou.

Benin has welcomed France's decision to return the objects, but has warned against doing so too quickly as it works to build a proper facility to showcase the heritage.

Benin's culture minister Jean-Michel Abimbola told a joint press conference that the two countries had agreed that the artworks would be handed back "in several stages".

He welcomed "the commitment of the French President to return these works" and "the opening of a broader discussion" concerning other artefacts.

The Kingdom of Dahomey -- in what became modern-day Benin -- reached its peak in the 18th and 19th centuries and became a major source of slaves for European traders before conquest by Paris in the 1890s ended its rule.

Benin voters boycott polls with only one choice

CNA – AFP, 29 Apr 2019

A polling official empties the ballot box at the end of the vote at a polling station during
the elections for a new parliament in Cotonou on Apr 28, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Yanick Folly)

PORTO-NOVO: People in Benin on Sunday (Apr 28) boycotted in large numbers parliamentary polls with no opposition candidate to choose from, as rights groups warned of a crackdown on basic freedoms.

As national radio stations pleaded for voters to "fulfil their duty as citizens" and elect 83 new members of parliament - choosing from two parties both allied to President Patrice Talon - the internet was cut.

The small West African state was long held up as a model for democracy, but the country's main opposition parties were effectively barred from fielding candidates by tough new eligibility rules.

Instead, they asked their supporters to protest by boycotting the polls.

Many of the five million registered voters seemed to stay away, with voting booths in the economic capital Cotonou quiet, streets empty and shops closed all day.

Internet Shutdowns

In 10 polling stations visited by AFP in the largely opposition area of Seme-Podji, no more than 35 voters had cast their ballots out of the more than 400 people registered. The situation seemed similar in other parts of Benin visited by AFP reporters.

"We have never seen such a thing," one election commission official said. "The people have not come out."

In the run up to polling, protests were broken up by force. Internet access was initially tightly restricted with blocks on the main social media and messaging apps.

Amnesty International called the internet shutdown a "blunt violation of the right to freedom of expression."

Then later in the day, internet access was shut down entirely.

"It is effectively silencing human rights defenders, journalists and bloggers who are monitoring contested parliamentary elections without opposition candidates," Amnesty said in a statement.

'Going to far'

Even supporters of the president did not vote.

"I'm not a fierce opponent, I actually support President Talon," said Wilfrid Pokini, a trader in the capital Porto Novo. "But I do not support this election - an unopposed election, what is that? It is going too far."

People say they are "stunned" and "shocked" by the situation, but blanket bans on demonstrations ahead of voting has kept people off the streets.

"The wave of arbitrary arrests of political activists and journalists, and the crackdown on peaceful protests, have reached an alarming level," Amnesty International researcher Francois Patuel said.

Before 1991, Benin struggled under decades of authoritarian rule. The transition to democracy brought a flowering of political competition - five years ago, voters could chose from 20 parties for the 83 seats in parliament.

But this year, lawmakers from the ruling party pushed through a new electoral code.

Tensions

Talon, elected in 2016, portrays himself as a reformer and modernist. He has defended the electoral code, saying it would bring together the scores of political parties - more than 250 parties in a country of some 12 million people - into simpler blocs.

But critics say the rules were too tough and bureaucratic. Only the two parties allied to Talon - the Republicans and Progressive Union - met the new conditions, effectively barring the opposition from taking part.

Several international and domestic observers scrapped their missions to monitor the polls. Some warn of the risk of unrest.

"Banning peaceful protests and detaining those who speak up against the exclusion of opposition parties from the legislative election will only fuel political turmoil," Amnesty's Patuel added.

The president is, however, apparently not worried. There seems little doubt that the new parliament will back the presidency in its entirety.

"The resentment will pass," presidential spokesman Wilfried Houngbedji said. "On Monday, life will resume its normal course."

Restitution of African art from France: "We need this memory"

Yahoo – AFP, Sophie BOUILLON, with African bureau, November 24, 2018

Benin's artefacts from the era of the Kingdom of Dahomey, including these royal
statues, are among 70,000 African objects kept at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques
Chirac in Paris -- but France says it plans to return 26 works plundered in 1892
"without delay" (AFP Photo/GERARD JULIEN)

Lagos (AFP) - The debate over the restitution of thousands of African cultural artefacts from France has become heated, but in West Africa conservators prefer to call it "collaboration" and are preparing for their return.

The French presidency announced on Friday night that it was restoring "without delay" 26 works plundered by the French army in 1892 and claimed by the authorities in Benin.

The recommendations come with the delivery of a non-binding report that proposes a change in legislation and urges the return of museum artefacts to Africa from France.

Alain Godonou, a Beninese conservator responsible for heritage at the new national agency for tourism promotion in Benin, has been working on this issue for more than 30 years and says now is the time for reflection.

The small West African country of Benin, formerly Dahomey, was home to the kingdom of Abomey (1600-1894) and priceless wealth.

But instead of sitting in the capital of Porto-Novo, the throne of King Glele from 1858 is one of the centrepieces of the 70,000 African objects kept at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris.

"To keep war booty in countries that are now friends and collaborate doesn't make sense," Godonou told AFP.

"It's a relief but it's only the beginning. There is still so much to be done so that our youth can access this heritage that will make them proud."

Several African countries including Benin, whose pictured 

funerary crown of the Kingdom of Dahomey is in Paris, 

are either planning new museums or looking to inaugurate 

venues already built to house their artistic heritage (AFP 

Photo/GERARD JULIEN)

Sensitive question

"We don't want them to have our objects just for the sake of it," Godonou continues.

"The cultural education of African youth is important and these objects will help to root them."

This includes a rehabilitation of museums. For years, Europeans have justified keeping the treasured artefacts by arguing that African countries didn't have the facilities to take care of their cultural heritage.

But in many countries -- including Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Benin -- plans are underway new museums have been built and plans are underway for yet more.

Beninese President Patrice Talon, whose goal is to make tourism one of the pillars of the national economy, has approved the sites for five museums that will open in 2020 to honour the kings of Abomey and the Amazons, the all-female military regiment in Dahomey.

The country's minister of foreign affairs Aurelien Agbenonci told AFP on Saturday the government is "delighted" with the decision, which he said was "an invitation to get to work quickly."

Ousmane Aledji, in charge of heritage for the Benin presidency, welcomed the "new form of cultural exchange" with France.

"We're not for a violent claim, but we want to put in place measures for progressive restitution," he says.

His sentiment was echoed in Abidjan, where the director of the museum of civilisation of Ivory Coast Silvie Memel Kassi said "it's not a bad thing in itself that they were preserved and indexed in France."

French President Emmanuel Macron, during a visit to 

Burkina Faso last year, said "Africa's heritage cannot just 

be in European private collections and museums"

(AFP Photo/ludovic MARIN)

"Ancestral pieces"

The national museum of Abidjan was renovated last year, but a larger museum is sill in the works.

In this case, said Kassi, "we could start talking about a definitive restitution."

She added that "the important thing is to work together, we want to have access to these objects, we need this memory, these objects are a memory."

In Dakar, the museum of black civilisation, whose inauguration is scheduled for December 6, will be ready one day to house the objects, pledges Kassi.

"We have operational reserves that can accommodate such objects," said the Senegalese museum director Hamady Bocoum, stressing the works may not necessarily end up in museums and could go back to communities who may "decide to put them in the altars of the ancestors."

"These works came from our ancestors," said Taho Toubo, a traditional leader from Ivory Coast.

"I pray for the ancestors that their pieces are returned."

'Trash is gold' as Benin community turns waste into biogas

Yahoo – AFP, Josué MEHOUENOU, August 22, 2018

The facility processes around six tonnes of organic waste every week, turning it
into 200 cubic metres of biogas (AFP Photo/Yanick FOLLY)

Houegbo (Bénin) (AFP) - Garbage has never smelled so sweet for a small village in southern Benin since it opened a pilot waste treatment centre to turn household rubbish into gas -- and cash.

"Our trash has become gold. We no longer throw it into the bush. We use it to make money," beams Alphonse Ago, who lives next to the centre in Houegbo village.

ReBin, a Swiss foundation for sustainable development, built the 1.3-hectare (3.2-acre) facility, which every week turns around six tonnes of organic waste into 200 cubic metres of biogas -- saving some 164 tonnes of wood from being used to make charcoal.

The centre, which opened late last year, also plans to produce around 400 tonnes of organic fertiliser per year.

So far, around 100 households in the area have signed up to the scheme to deposit their waste at the centre on a daily basis.

Every 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds) of waste fetches 250 CFA francs (around 50 euro cents, 57 US cents), paid either in cash or credit -- to buy biogas.

The fuel is a precious commodity in a rural region where electricity remains scarce.

Agnes Avoce, a shopkeeper and mother of five, proudly straps a large plastic bag of the gas onto her back.

So far, around 100 households in the area have signed up to the scheme. Every 

10 kilogrammes of waste fetches 250 CFA francs (around 50 euro cents), paid 

either in cash or credit -- to buy biogas (AFP Photo/Yanick FOLLY)

Biogas, she says, is much cleaner and more efficient for cooking than charcoal -- which "darkens the pots and makes me sick" -- and she is more than happy to make the switch.

Avoce is not alone; five other women are waiting to pick up gas.

"There are queues here since we opted for biogas," another customer says.

'Goldmine'

Symphorien Adonon, 35, drops off a week's worth of carefully sorted waste, smiling as he pockets his cash payment.

"Now I have enough to do the shopping for dinner," says Adonon, who drives a motorcycle taxi.

ReBin Benin Foundation chief Mark Giannelli was inspired to launch the project 

after noticing mountains of discarded pineapple skins in Benin, Africa's fourth-biggest 

exporter of the fruit (AFP Photo/Yanick FOLLY)

The centre has treated more than 20 tonnes of waste since it began operations late last year.

In addition to the customers' household waste, there is also rubbish collected by a local non-government organisation, Astome.

The NGO's chief, Florent Gbegnon, says he used to collect it on a push cart, but he now uses a tricycle provided by the centre.

"It's a huge relief," he says as he dumps a load of pineapple skins. "Pushing the cart was a real burden."

It was the massive amounts of waste such as pineapple skins that originally caught the attention of ReBin's founder, Mark Giannelli, and inspired him to set up the treatment centre in Houegbo.

"I saw this not as a problem, but as an opportunity, and I thought it was a goldmine," Giannelli told AFP.

Benin is Africa's fourth-biggest exporter of pineapples. And in Houegbo, which has one of the busiest markets in the region, local sources estimate that more than a tonne of waste is generated every day from that fruit alone.

Giannelli told AFP that he had been searching for a potential site for his project in Benin's West African neighbours Ghana and Togo.

Sewai Mardochee, director of the Toffo facility, says it should be duplicated across 

Benin. 'We can then create jobs and clean up our living environment by reducing

the use of firewood and coal' (AFP Photo/Yanick FOLLY)

But it was the enthusiasm with which the locals embraced his idea that finally convinced him to set up the waste treatment centre here, he said.

'Source of happiness'

The goal is to establish "a real economy that serves the population and protects the environment," he says. "We have to take the problems locally and adapt them to local solutions."

Once the necessary expertise has become more firmly established in Houegbo, Giannelli hopes to extend the project to larger municipalities and let local entrepreneurs run it.

The centre's director, Sewai Mardochee, suggests duplicating it in all of Benin's 77 municipalities.

"We can then create jobs and clean up our living environment by reducing the use of firewood and coal," he said.

Nicolas Hounje, a retired official, has put himself forward to take over the company.

"We did not know here that garbage can become a source of happiness," he says.

Kidjo says 'Africa on rise' in latest Grammy win

Yahoo – AFP, 16 February 2016

Angelique Kidjo recieves the award for the Best World Music Album, Sings, onstage

 during the 58th Annual Grammy music Awards in Los Angeles on February 15, 

2016 (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

Los Angeles (AFP) - Angelique Kidjo, one of Africa's most prominent musicians, won her third Grammy on Monday and dedicated it to aspiring artists on the continent.

The Beninese-born singer won the Grammy for Best World Music Album for "Sings," a collection of her songs infused with Western classical traditions in a collaboration with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.

This is the second straight year that Kidjo has won the Best World Music Album prize, after last year's "Eve" that paid tribute to African women.

A visibly happy K  by a pit orchestra.

"I want to dedicate this Grammy to all the traditional musicians in Africa, in my country, to all the young generation," Kidjo said.

"Africa is on the rise, Africa is positive, Africa is joyful," she said.

"Let's get together and be one with music, and say no to hate and violence," she said to applause.

The album merges African songwriting and rhythms with European classical instrumentation, a fusion on which Kidjo has repeatedly experimented.

Kidjo described the album as an artistic challenge as traditional African bands follow the lead of the soloist much more closely, unlike Western orchestras that generally play off refined scores.

This is the second straight year that Kidjo has

 won the Best World Music Album prize, after

 last year's "Eve" that paid tribute to African

women (AFP Photo/Frederick M. Brown)

Kidjo, who is based in New York and plans another concert at Carnegie Hall in the upcoming season, said she was open to further work with artists of other genres.

"I work with everyone who believes that music is the tool of peace. For me, music is the only form of art that connects the entire world," she told AFP after accepting the award.

'Open-minded' awards

Kidjo has long worked with Philip Glass, one of the leading living US composers.

Glass notably worked with Kidjo on music set to three poems from Yoruba mythology.

Collaborators on "Sings" include not only classical musicians but the bassist Christian McBride, who separately won his latest Grammy on Monday in the category of Best Improvised Jazz Solo.

Kidjo hailed the Grammys as being increasingly open-minded.

"What astounds me more and more is the openness of spirit by the Grammys compared with other events," she told AFP.

"They are showing musical diversity to the rest of the world," she said. "What is great at the Grammys is to have people who aren't only into commercial things."

The artist with the most nominations at Monday's Grammys is Kendrick Lamar, whose album "To Pimp a Butterfly" has been hailed for its meditative look on the state of black America.

"Sings" beat out a highly innovative Grammy nominee from Africa -- an album by Malawi's Zomba Prison Project.

The 20-track album, arranged by the US producer Ian Brennan, explored the unexpected musical talents of prisoners at a maximum-security prison.

"I am a reformed person, and music has helped me to be cool and deal with the situation of being incarcerated for life," Elias Chimenya, who is serving a life term for killing a man in a quarrel, told AFP earlier in Malawi.

The three others in contention for the World Music Grammy were all previous nominees -- sitarist Anoushka Shankar, Brazilian legend Gilberto Gil and South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Benin tackles climate change with sunshine and coconuts

Yahoo – AFP, Delphine Bousquet, 17 Nov 2015

Philomene Ahouansou cooks beans and rice by the roadside using a 

solar-powered cooker in Porto-Novo, Benin (AFP Photo/Delphine Bousquet)

Porto-Novo (Benin) (AFP) - Philomene Ahouansou cooks beans and rice in three giant steel pots by the roadside in Benin's capital, Porto-Novo. It's a scene that's common throughout the country.

But instead of a wood-fuelled stove, she's using a solar-powered cooker run on coconut husks, which it's hoped will prevent deforestation and reduce greenhouse gas-producing smoke.

The device -- called "Mivo", which means "Take it easy" in the local Fon language -- has been marketed by a charity called Autre Vie.

For the last three years, the organisation has been trying to turn Beninese away from their reliance on charcoal or wood, which is used in four out of five households for cooking.

"When I heard the advert on the radio, I went straight to the Autre Vie offices to buy three," said Philomene.

"There's no smoke getting in your eyes, it's not too hot, you don't have to ventilate it so the fire takes hold. You can work with it all day," she added.

A solar-powered cooker, called "Mivo", which means "Take it easy" in the 

local Fon language -- has been marketed by a charity called Autre Vie in 

Porto-Novo (AFP Photo)

'We leave the trees in peace'

The cooker -- a metal cylinder with a ceramic bowl on top for the fuel -- works on the convection principle.

A fan -- made from recovered computer parts -- is fixed on one side to a power cable and plugged into a solar panel with a rechargeable battery.

The light from the sun powers the fan, sending a constant stream of hot air to allow cooking.

LED lightbulbs can be attached to the solar panels to give light to customers without electricity, allowing them to stop using dangerous and noxious oil lamps.

"I used wood before. It cost me a lot of money, 25,000 CFA francs ($42, 38 euros) a month," said Philomene. "Coconut husks now cost me 5,000 CFA francs a month."

Most people, like Philomene, cite financial reasons for buying the cooker but they also now know it's more environmentally friendly.

"We leave the trees in peace in the forest. That gives us rain and when it rains things grow. So, it protects us," she said.

With every purchase, Autre Vie tells customers about climate change.

"We cut down trees illegally for charcoal," said young mother Chimene Agossou, who lives in a household of 13 that switched to cooking with sunshine and coconuts two years ago.

"When we extract the coconut oil we're left with the husks. That's not killing the forests."

Executive director of the charity Autre Vie (Another Life) Romuald Djivoessoun

 poses with a solar-powered cooker in Porto-Novo (AFP Photo)

Inspired by blacksmiths

Romuald Djivoessoun made his first prototype of the cooker 10 years ago after seeing blacksmiths burn coconut shells in the forge to melt iron.

He honed the design over the years with the help of craftsmen and academics.

"This cooker is going to reduce deforestation and as a result greenhouse gases," said the talkative engineer who runs Autre Vie.

"For a family of four, a bag of shells lasts six months. With charcoal you need a bag and a half every month. You have to cut wood."

Forests cover only 17 percent of Benin yet some 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) of forests are disappearing every year, according to Benin's forest and natural resources directorate.

Charcoal production is blamed for part of it.

One study estimated that between 2009 and 2010, charcoal production doubled.

Autre Vie managed to convince 200 female charcoal burners to find and adapt coconut husks for use in the solar cookers.

With financial support from the UN development fund some 800 cookers have now been sold, despite being costly for low-income Benin at 55,000 CFA francs.

Workers make solar-powered cookers at a factory in Akpro-Misserete, outside

of Porto-Novo on October 1, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Djivoessoun said demand is high, with 120 clients on the waiting list, and local craftsmen can't keep up.

The Akpro-Misserete council, near Porto-Novo, donated land to build a small factory to enable more industrial-scale production, which should lower prices and also allow different sizes of cookers to be made.

World leaders are set to gather in Paris in early December for an environmental summit on climate change but Djivoessoun is not happy.

"Small initiatives are not being encouraged. It costs nothing to finance but the impacts are enormous," he said.

Heads of state should look to schemes such as his to make a bigger impact, he added.

Dutch aid alliance with Benin suspended over fraud

DutchNews.nl, May 6, 2015

Dutch aid minister Lilianne Ploumen has suspended the government’s development agreement with Benin because of suspected fraud. 

Research has shown €4m in Dutch aid cash earmarked for the ministry of water has disappeared, the minister told MPs on Wednesday. 

In addition, money has been spent on projects which were not part of the agreement and a number of start-up companies have been given large sums of money, Ploumen said. 

The decision to suspend the agreement was not taken lightly, Ploumen said, adding that fraud is unacceptable. 

‘The Netherlands would like to offer the people of Benin a better future by carrying out effective programmes,’ she said in a statement. ‘But if it transpires that government institutions are seriously failing, then we have to take steps.’ 

It is now up to Benin to carry out independent research into what has happened to the money in order to restore the relationship with the Netherlands, she said. 

The Netherlands is the biggest single donor to Benin in terms of water aid, the foreign affairs ministry said.

UN condemns Boko Haram attacks, urges African nations to act

For the first time, the UN Security Council has condemned Boko Haram's attacks as a whole. The Islamist group poses a threat to the region, the council has warned, urging African nations to act.

Deutsche Welle, 20 Jan 2015

Ahead of a key regional meeting in Niger on Tuesday, the UN Security Council spoke out against Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

"The Security Council demands that Boko Haram immediately and unequivocally cease all hostilities and all abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law and disarm and demobilize," it said in a statement, its first official condemnation of the terrorist organization's acts as a whole.

The extremist group has drawn significantly more international attention over the past year, due to the increase in the number of attacks it has carried out, which have spilled over into neighboring countries.

Its kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls also sparked the social media campaign #bringbackourgirls across the globe, which spotlighted its exploitation of children for its terror campaign.

The UN Security Council further said that some of the group's acts could "account to crimes against humanity."

This month, Boko Haram militants massacred at least 2,000 Nigerians in the northeastern town Baga where a key military base is located. 

On Saturday, Chad sent troops and equipment to Cameroon and Nigeria in a bid to help tackle the Islamist insurgency.

In its statement, released late on Monday, the UN urged other nations to form a multinational force aimed at combating the militant group.

Boko Haram, which controls parts of northeastern Nigeria, is seeking to establish an Islamic state in Africa. Frequent raids, killings and suicide bomb attacks perpetrated by the jihadists have claimed at least 13,000 lives and displaced an estimated 1.5 million people.

kms/cmk (AP, AFP, dpa)

Every country fends for itself in the fight against Boko Haram

Boko Haram terrorists have become a threat beyond Nigeria's borders. The governments of the affected states say they have joined forces to combat the extremist group, but their cooperation leaves a lot to be desired.

Deutsche Welle, 30 Dec 2014

In an image taken from a Boko Haram video, the leader of the group Boko
Haram is flanked by masked gunmen holding flags. Photo: (AP Photo)

"There is total panic" is how Danjuma Hamina from Achigachia describes what is happening in her home town in northern Cameroon. Fighters from the terrorist group Boko Haram had taken control of the town, she said, and "even hoisted their flag." Together with dozens of others, Hamina boarded a train and fled to Cameroon's capital Yaounde.

Boko Haram members have been raiding villages near the border between northern Cameroon and Nigeria for several months. But this time things were different, the eyewitness told DW. "We have not seen an attack like this since the whole Boko Haram thing started," she exclaimed.

According to the Cameroonian military, more than 1,000 terrorists have attacked several places in the border area in the past few days. They killed numerous civilians and soldiers. After heavy fighting on Sunday (29.12.2014), they briefly seized a military base in Achigachia.

Chad's military is considered to be strong,
 but the neighboring countries distrust
Chad's government

Only after Cameroon launched its first-ever air strikes against the terrorist group, did the military succeed in retaking the base.

It is still unclear how many people died in the attacks, the Cameroonian military said. But what has become abundantly clear by now is that Boko Haram not only poses a threat to northern Nigeria, but to the neighboring states as well.

The Islamists have been carrying out bloody attacks for five years, most of them in the Nigerian states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. They even control large swathes of the country's northeast, where they have proclaimed the establishment of a caliphate in line with their radical Islamist ideology. They have killed several thousand people and driven between 700,000 and 1.5 million from their homes.

Joint declaration of war, but no consequences

In the past months Boko Haram has been expanding its activities into neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. For some time now, experts say, the extremists have maintained bases on both sides of various borders as havens to which they can retreat if attacked. The terrorists are recruiting fighters in the neighboring countries as well. Several high-ranking leaders of the group reportedly come from Chad and Niger.

Nigeria's neighbors lie in a poor and unstable region

While the extremists have again proven that they are capable of cross-border attacks, each of the affected countries has by and large been responding to them on its own.

In May 2014, the heads of state of Nigeria and neighboring Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin had declared a "war" against Boko Haram. At a summit hosted by French President Francois Hollande, they agreed on measures to tackle the terrorist threat, including pooling intelligence, joint border surveillance and an intervention force. But very little has happened since.

Not long ago Cameroon again declared that it would cooperate more closely with Chad, Niger and Nigeria, according to Jesper Cullen, a security analyst for the British consultancy Risk Advisory Group. "But just [now] the Cameroonian government said one of the problems they're really facing is that the limit of their military is the border with Nigeria, and as soon as Boko Haram crosses over, Boko Haram are free to run around pretty much as they want." This shows that there is no coordination between the two armies, the expert said.

Distrust between intelligence agencies

Niger's south has also been massively affected by Boko Haram violence.

More than 120,000 people have already
fled from Nigeria to the south of Niger

The president of Diffa's regional parliament says his region has already accepted more than 120,000 refugees from northern Nigeria. "More come every day," Mahirou Malam Ligari said in an interview with DW. The government of Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, was doing all it could, Ligari said. "But we need more help," he stressed.

The wave of refugees is not only a social challenge. Along with the refugees, Boko Haram fighters enter the country. Niger's security forces had already arrested several suspected terrorists, Ligari said. But he warned that the threat of attacks in the border region remained high.

Although they have a common enemy, there is distrust among the affected countries. Nigerian media have repeatedly accused Chad's leaders of supporting Boko Haram. Cameroon also suspects that the terrorists are receiving help in other countries. "You have to ask yourself how a movement like this, whose supply lines have been cut, can continue to cause damage on this scale," Cameroonian military spokesman Didier Badjeck told DW. "This means that behind the scenes strange things are happening with respect to Boko Haram."

The security forces and the governments in the region do not accuse each other openly. But the massive distrust between them also manifests itself in the lack of cooperation between their intelligence agencies, according to a statement given by Comfort Ero, Africa director for the International Crisis Group, to the news agency AP. "None of the sides is willing to share information with the other," Ero said.