President Muhammadu Buhari arrived Cameroon on Wednesday for talks on how to combat the escalating regional threat from the Boko Haram sect.
AFP reports that security was tight for the 24-hour visit, after a surge of Boko Haram violence in Cameroon including an unprecedented series of five suicide bombings in the far north.
Presidential guard soldiers were posted on rooftops of houses and along the route from the airport to the presidential palace in Yaounde, while vehicles armed with machine-guns patrolled the streets and access to the hotel where Buhari will stay was blocked.
The trip comes a day after Nigeria vowed that a new regional force tasked with fighting the insurgents would go into action soon.
Nigeria’s government had said Buhari’s talks with his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya were part of his “ongoing effort to build a more effective regional coalition against Boko Haram.”
-Nation