Rapid Intervention Brigade

The Rapid Intervention Brigade, also called the Rapid Intervention Battalion (French: Brigade or Bataillon d'Intervention Rapide, BIR) is a light infantry and combined arms unit of the Cameroonian Armed Forces. The BIR was founded to assist the police in protecting Cameroon's borders with the Central African Republic, Chad, and Nigeria, where heavily armed rebel groups looted vehicles, held passengers hostage for ransom, and stole cattle.

The BIR is better equipped, trained and paid than ordinary units in Cameroon's army. The unit is led by a retired Israeli officer and reports directly to the president of Cameroon, instead of to the ministry of defense. The BIR has worked closely with the US military since 2007 or earlier. Its main responsibilities include counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, and anti-banditry. A part of the BIR's objectives includes controlling the illegal circulation of arms. The BIR has also been cited by poachers and ivory traders as a threat to illegal trade in animal goods.

In 2012, the BIR deployed a "permanent" force to Bouba Njida National Park in northern Cameroon to protect elephants from poachers. The unit is supported by the United States and Israel as part of the efforts against Islamic extremism in the Sahel, and has played a large part in the Cameroonian and regional war against Boko Haram. Since Cameroon joined the Multinational Joint Task Force against the Boko Haram insurgency, BIR troops have waged operations under its legal authority. In 2016 they destroyed two of Boko Haram's main training bases in Nigeria.

The unit is organized as a brigade of 5,000 to 7,000 soldiers, with five or six battalions. It has been noted for its effectiveness against bandits and militant groups, but it has also become known for committing human rights violations. The BIR routinely uses excessive force and often does not distinguish between insurgents and civilians. It has been accused of torturing and killing detainees at a number of its bases in northern Cameroon and in Nigeria, oppressing ethnic minority groups during the Anglophone Crisis, and violently putting down protests against the government, while acting as the personal force of President Paul Biya.