Washington links $35 million in military aid to Cameroon taking in migrants
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on La Nouvelle Tribune
The United States plans around $35 million in military aid for Cameroon’s Rapid Intervention Battalion, including armoured personnel carriers. According to the Wall Street Journal, the aid is linked to Yaoundé taking in migrants expelled from the United States, under a deal negotiated by the State Department.
Washington has agreed to provide around $35 million in military aid to the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), an elite unit of the Cameroonian army, in exchange for Cameroon taking in migrants expelled from the United States who are not Cameroonian, the Wall Street Journal reported in an article published on Thursday 29 October. The aid would include armoured personnel carriers for the BIR.
The US State Department reportedly negotiated the military assistance and the deportation agreement as part of the same package of measures. Ghana, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are also among the African countries affected by US deportation policy. The first flight to Cameroon arrived on 14 January 2026 with migrants who had left Louisiana, and 36 people were transferred between January and May, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Neither Washington nor Yaoundé has officially confirmed the agreement. The US-trained BIR is suspected of serious abuses in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, where Washington suspended security assistance between 2017 and 2021 during Donald Trump’s first term, following accusations of abuses against civilians.
The announcement comes after Yaoundé took in women migrants expelled from the United States, as reported on 21 September. It also forms part of a security relationship already marked by US aid intended to strengthen healthcare in Cameroon, announced on 2 October.
