The group may be gone from major cities, but in the countryside it poses a constant threat. And for the hundreds of thousands of refugees and impoverished villagers surrounded by fighting in the isolated northern reaches of Cameroon, terror and hunger form daily challenges to their survival. "All of you who are attempting to fight this terror, the United States stands with you," said Samantha Power, America's U.N. ambassador, making a rare visit by any foreign dignitary, let alone a U.S. Cabinet member, to this parched, dusty landscape dotted by thatched-roofed huts and meandering goats and donkeys. Underscoring the insecurity, Power traveled with a large contingent of U.S. and Cameroonian special forces. A Cameroonian helicopter monitored overhead.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power speaks to members of civil society groups at the U.S. Embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon, Sunday, April 17, 2016. Power is visiting Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria to highlight the growing threat Boko Haram poses to the Lake Chad Basin region.
But in a tragic accident, an armored jeep in Power's motorcade stuck a 7-year-old boy who darted onto the road, killing him instantly. She traveled back to the scene of the incident several hours later to offer her condolences to his parents and "our grief and heartbreak." Power's larger goal of pairing military efforts with greater development of West Africa's impoverished, Boko Haram-ravaged regions is daunting. They've suffered generations of neglect. In Maroua, an enclave some 800 miles from the Cameroonian capital sandwiched between Chad and Nigeria, shortages of water, schools and investment are chronic.
Activists, opposition politicians and Muslim clerics say the extremists will draw Maroua's disaffected youth to their ranks as long as economic opportunities are limited and security forces continue committing indiscriminate atrocities while trying to stamp out the insurgency. Military force must be part of the counter-terror effort, Power told reporters. "They have guns. The have suicide vests. They have armored vehicles," she said.
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