Recruitment in the Army. Between Endurance and Disappointment in the Far-North
Of the 5063 registered, 3806 candidates were judged fit to meet the different tests and only 850 retained for the rest of the process.
Emmanuel NGOTA
The Commando Recruitment Commission on behalf of the Presidential Guard and the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) of the Far North Region completed the most delicate phases of its mission. 850 youth were short-listed for next steps.
That’s after the candidates braved in the day of Saturday, the stages of the race on 20 Kms, with a load of 20 kg. Then, potential future commandos passed the test of transporting, in groups of ten, a wooden electric pole.
On Sunday, the 850 young Cameroonians faced the challenge of the simple race over a distance of 10 km and other physical and psycho-technical exercises. A recruitment operation that took place in the presence of the governor of the Far North region, Midjiyawa Bakari.
However, there are three cases of fractures immediately taken care of by the medical corps of the army.
That is, if the joy is emerging in some future commandos, other unfortunate last trials have not digested their failure. Videos circulating on social networks show unhappy candidates in tears completely helpless. It should be noted that attempts to fraud candidates detected and managed according to an army source.
“The desperation of volunteers in the Far North for the army is due to extreme poverty, underemployment of youth and many other situations. So, it must be known that the preparation of this recruitment requires a huge physical and psychological preparation. To this, we recognize that the fees payable for this competition are enormous for these young people from the poorer classes who, for some, had to sell their food crops. By failing, the emotional shock is intense, “says a veteran of the Cameroonian army in Maroua.
And to continue: “Many of these young people have lost a loved one in the wars that our country is waging, they would have liked to identify with them by serving the nation. But the rigor of the criteria is there. ”
It is worthy of noting that due to the security situation most especially terrorism plaguing the North West and South west Regions not forgetting the Far North Regions, the ministry of defense through the commander in charge of the defense forces, Paul Biya is bound to reinforce the human resource.
It is in this back drop that the recruitment of 2600 elite commandos in to the presidential guard and the rapid intervention battalion was launches. Amongst the 2600 commandos, 2000 will join the ranks of the rapid intervention battalion and the 600 will be transferred to the presidential guard.
