out was along the Benue River, which travelled through British-controlled Nigeria. In World War I, the French under General Aymerich attacked the German outpost at Kousséri. On 25 August 1914, Colonel C. H. P. Carter attacked Germans at Mora, but was repulsed after a two-day fight. Captain Von Reuben continued the resistance, but he succumbed to the Anglo-French allies eventually. In February 1916, France became the colonial head of the area. The territory was placed in the Mora-Garoua administrative unit, headed at Garoua. France allowed the lamidos to keep their power, but it also overthrew any who refused to comply with French mandates. They set up independent Kirdi chiefdoms to discourage animosity between the Islamic and non-Islamic peoples in the territory. Missionaries began to arrive, setting up a Bible school at Yagoua and a printing press for religious literature in Kaélé. The French improved the roads and built an airstrip at Maroua. In 1931, they introduced a higher-yielding form of cotton. They also began SEMRY, a rice-growing project in the Logone-Chari swamplands. The first Cameroonian premier of Cameroon, André-Marie Mbida, startled the Fulani of the area when he announced his Abong-Mbang Resolutions in 1957. One of these stated that northern French Cameroon was to be "democratised", which the lamidos read to mean that their power would be curtailed. The northern territories threatened to secede and join with Chad. Northerner Ahmadou Ahidjo and his Union Camerounaise party rejected the resolutions, and Ahidjo used the issue to gain leverage and replace Mbida as prime minister. Post-independence Cameroon was granted independence on 1 January 1960 with Ahmadou Ahidjo its president. Under his rule, SODECOTON was set up, as was the Société de Développement et d'Exploitation des Production Animales (SODEPA) set up to improve ranching in 1974. Another was SEMRY in 1971. Upon Paul Biya's accession to the presidency, Moussa Yaya was accused of stirring up the lamidos against him. The UNDP is a Fulani-based party, but the CPDM is careful to support their interests. In 1983, the Grand North was split into three provinces. Border areas of the Far North have been affected by the Boko Haram insurgency spilling into Cameroon from neighboring Nigeria, resulting in the December 2014 Cameroon clashes. In January 2015, many schools in the Far North did not re-open after the Christmas vacation, and it was reported that "Thousands of teachers, students and pupils have fled schools located along