Cameroon protesters call for death of Boko Haram leader

Cameroon protesters call for death of Boko Haram leader

Several thousand people took to the streets of Cameroon’s capital on Saturday to
denounce Boko Haram’s bloody insurgency and call for the killing of the group’s
leader Abubakar Shekau.
“This march symbolises Cameroon’s unity against Boko Haram,” the country’s
Labour Minister Gregoire Owona told marchers in Yaounde, before shouting
“Shekau!”
In response, the crowd which organisers said numbered 10,000-15,000, chanted:
“You are dead, you are a coward.”
Over the past seven months Cameroonian soldiers have been battling the Nigerian
Islamists, which are now locked in a regional fight that also includes soldiers from
Nigeria and Chad.
Cameroon protesters want Abubakar Shekau dead
Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency, which has left 13,000 dead and forced over a
million from their homes, has increasingly spilled over into neighbouring nations.
Several ministers led the vocal, but peaceful march, which saw protestors waving
the flags of Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria.
“It was important to be here for me, for my brothers who are on the front, for my
country,” said marcher Philomene Ekombo, a Cameroonian flag in hand.
However, the date of the demonstration sparked controversy in Cameroon
because it coincided with the anniversary of protests in 2008 in which the
government said 40 people were killed. Locals groups put the death toll at 139.
Critics claimed the march organisers, with government encouragement, planned
the protest in order to overshadow memorials of the 2008 killings. Organisers
denied the allegation, saying: “There is no memorial war.”