17th January, 2015
In deploying troops to join the war against Boko Haram militants, Chad’s immediate target is the capturing of Baga, a border town straddling, Nigerien, Chadian, Cameroonian and Nigerian borders.
The immediate aim of the deployment was let out in a speech read on behalf of President Idriss Deby Itno in the Chadian parliament by the speaker.
Chad was part of a regional force against Boko Haram that was based in Baga — but both Chad and Niger had withdrawn their troops before the January 3 attack by Boko Haram, said to be the deadliest ever carried out by the insurgents.
Tens of thousands of people joined a march in N’Djamena on Saturday in support of the Chadian troops.
Marching some five kilometres (three miles) through Chad’s capital, demonstrators waved the national flag and chanted in French and Arabic:”Kick the forces of evil out of our territory.”
Prime Minister Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet said the march sent “a strong signal, a warning to Boko Haram”.
The event came as a huge convoy set off from N’Djamena to combat the Islamists sowing terror in northeastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon.
Thousands of people hailed the arrival of some 400 vehicles in the Cameroonian border town of Kousseri, an AFP journalist reported.
But Nigeria expressed lukewarm support fot the Chad mission on Saturday.
“All support for our operations will be welcome, but it must conform with our own ongoing operations,” Nigerian army spokesman Chris Olukolade told AFP.
The Cameroon government said on Monday that its army killed 143 Boko Haram fighters who had attacked a military base in the northern town of Kolofata.
This week French President Francois Hollande and US Secretary of State John Kerry accused Boko Haram of committing crimes against humanity, while a top UN official, Leila Zerrougui, called for a regional response to the crisis.
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, who heads the regional Economic Community of West African States, called Friday for a “specific plan of action to end the problem of terrorism” in Africa.
Satellite pictures released by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch last week showed around 3,700 buildings in Baga and nearby Doron Baga damaged or destroyed.
Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International, said as many as 2,000 civilians may have been massacred, but Nigeria’s army objected to the “sensational” claims and said that the death toll in Baga was about 150.
Brutal raids, massacres, suicide bomb attacks and kidnappings by Boko Haram have claimed at least 13,000 lives and driven an estimated 1.5 million people from their homes, mainly in northeastern Nigeria.