Nigeria and Cameroon signed a bilateral defence Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on 16 June 2026, committing both countries to joint operations and revival of a maritime task force along their shared southern border and in the Gulf of Guinea. Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, General Christopher Gwabin Musa (retd.), signed the agreement with Cameroon’s Minister Delegate at the Presidency in Charge of Defence, Mr. Joseph Beti Assomo, following 2 days of deliberations by defence and security experts from both countries. The ceremony was conducted under the authority of Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Cameroonian President Paul Biya, according to a statement from the Nigerian Ministry of Defence.
The MoU covers intelligence sharing, operational coordination, logistics support, joint military training, personnel exchange programmes, and collective response mechanisms to emerging security threats. General Musa said the agreement would “provide a structured framework for military cooperation and operations between both countries and further institutionalize collaboration in addressing common security concerns.”
A BORDER WITH EVOLVING THREATS
The Nigeria-Cameroon frontier has been under persistent pressure for over a decade. The Banki-Amchidé-Limani and Fotokol regions on the northern stretch of the shared border are threatened by two major Boko Haram factions: the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) operating near Fotokol, and Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’Awati Wal-Jihad (JAS), based in the Mandara Mountains. The insurgents currently hold ground across three main areas: Lake Chad’s islands, Cameroon’s Mandara Mountains, and Sambisa Forest in Nigeria, while daily attacks on civilians continue in cross-border zones around Cameroon and Nigeria.
A key operational priority in the new pact is the joint maritime domain. Both countries discussed the operationalization of the Combined Maritime Joint Task Force, a platform intended to enhance maritime security and safeguard economic interests within the Gulf of Guinea, where Nigeria and Cameroon are key stakeholders. Multinational patrols involving Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon aim to improve maritime surveillance and response capabilities, and information-sharing platforms have been organized to coordinate between maritime operation centers. Both countries participated in Obangame Express, the annual US Africa Command-led maritime exercise in the Gulf of Guinea. The 2026 edition opened in Cameroon, and the 2023 edition was hosted in Lagos, Nigeria.
General Christopher Musa pointed to Africa’s limited indigenous hardware production as the continent’s core procurement vulnerability. He highlighted opportunities under Nigeria’s Defence Industries Corporation (DICON) framework Act 2023 and reaffirmed Nigeria’s openness to collaboration in defence manufacturing, technology transfer, research, and innovation. Joseph Beti Assomo confirmed that a formal proposal framework is currently being finalized to translate defence-technology cooperation between both countries into concrete bilateral arrangements.
Cameroon’s defence minister has indicated that the technology-cooperation proposal framework will be finalized shortly, whilst the Combined Maritime Joint Task Force operationalization sets a near-term test of whether the MoU produces coordinated patrols rather than paper commitments.