MINUSCA: Cameroon Contingent Hailed

The new year opened under sky-blue circumstances for the over 1,000 Cameroonian soldiers assigned to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). Dispatched by the Head of State, President Paul Biya, the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in Charge of Defence, Joseph Beti Assomo, spent two good days with the squad in two localities of the war-torn Central African nation, Bossangoa and Bangui in a bid to boost their moral, scale their performance and encourage them as they get into the new year.

All the ingredients needed to make soldiers at the war front happy were put in place as translated by the Minister's decision to spend the evening in fanfare with them in Bossangoa, dish out medal awards and epaulets decreed by the Head of State and generally commune with the soldiers in all simplicity and encouragement.

Even though nothing filtered out from the audience granted Beti Assomo by the President of the Central African Republic, FaustinArchange Touadera, there were signs of appreciation as stated by the Minister himself in his speech to the soldiers during the decoration and epaulet award ceremonies in Bossangoa and Bangui. "The President urged me to express his appreciation and congratulate you for the remarkable way you have been exercising your mission in the Central African Republic", he said.

This wave of satisfaction and appreciation threaded through to officials of the United Nations as testified by Kenneth Gluck, Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General. The presence of the Cameroonian contingent, he said, has helped to stabilize the situation in the western part of the country and led to the return of over 70,000 internally displaced persons.

He expressed the wish that Cameroonian soldiers continue to ensure zero sexual abuse on the field. In response to him, and that was during a short working session at the Head office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General who heads MINUSCA, Beti Assomo assured the UN official of measures put in place to improve the behavioral pattern of Cameroonian soldiers. "Once it is established that there have been abuses on the field, sanctions are immediately meted on the culprits", he said.

For two days running, the Minister Delegate, put himself on a busy schedule beginning at the Bangui M'poko International Airport, with a working session which he had with Henri Wanzet Linguissara, Minister of ...