22nd March, 2015
Chadian soldiers and their counterparts from Niger are not happy that they have continued to secure towns in Nigeria while the Nigerian soldiers are nowhere near some of these towns days after helping the country to liberate the once Boko Haram-infested towns, the New York Times has reported.
The report by the New York Times paints a picture of fear on the part of Nigeria and worries on the part of the foreign soldiers that the latter has continued to perform the duties of the Nigerian soldiers in their own lands.
In one of such instances, the New York Times describes a picture of what it found in Damasak, one of the liberated towns in the North-eastern state of Borno, Nigeria after Chadian soldiers led a group of journalists to the town.
Boko Haram’s black flag is everywhere in the town of Damasak, deep in Islamist-held territory in northern Nigeria: It is painted on former administrative buildings and schools, and on the side of abandoned gas stations, the foreign newspaper reports.
The other unmistakable sign of the Islamist militants’ recent presence is that very few residents remain in a once-thriving town of 200,000. They have either fled to the state capital, Maiduguri, or been killed by Boko Haram. Every looted and battered storefront yawns open to the dusty roadside.
Mostly, the only sound in the hot, still air is from military vehicles, carrying soldiers from the neighbouring countries of Chad and Niger as they make their way through the wreckage of the deadly five-month Islamist occupation of this Nigerian town. From time to time, the Chadian soldiers ululate to celebrate their victory against the militants in a fierce fire-fight that stretched into last week.
The Chadians ushered a small group of journalists around for a brief look last week, offering a rare glimpse into the group’s northern Nigerian stronghold, and into the dimensions, and difficulties, of a cross-border, four-nation fight against the Islamists.
Rather than revealing important regional cooperation in the battle against Boko Haram, the visit pointed out some of the confusion and resentment creating tension among neighbours. The soldiers from Chad and Niger had succeeded here, but there was not a single Nigerian soldier to be found. The force members were bewildered to find themselves as foreign liberators without any help from the country benefiting from the liberation.
Even as the Nigerian government, with a national election looming, insists that its forces have chased Boko Haram fighters out of much of their northern territory, the deserted streets and all-foreign force here paint a different picture. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians still cannot return home to towns that have been, nominally at least, freed from Boko Haram.
But the foreign soldiers here say they do not want to occupy somebody else’s country, and worry that the Islamist fighters will simply return if they leave and the Nigerians have not arrived to take over.
Hundreds of miles away in Ndjamena, the capital of Chad, officials are expressing anger at the near-total absence of cooperation from the Nigerians in a crucial regional battle, even as Nigerian officials are discounting the extent of Chad’s role.
The disquiet of the Chadian officials was echoed in the words of the front-line Chadian soldiers here who wonder why they, and not the Nigerians, are holding towns like Damasak, several days after the last Boko Haram fighter has fled or been killed.
“We asked them to come, to receive this town from us, but they have not come,” said Second Lt. Mohammed Hassan, resting in the shade of the armoured vehicle he had manned with his company.
“It is because they are afraid,” Lieutenant Hassan added, spitting out the words, his face half hidden against the 107-degree heat in a black turban.
Around him hundreds of soldiers from Chad and Niger were camped out under the broiling sun. The senior Chadian officers tried to shoo away a handful of journalists, but a few of the soldiers, like the lieutenant, still wanted to talk about the battle.
“We fought on the night of the 14th, and the last attack was on the 15th,” Lieutenant Hassan said. As for the Nigerians, “we called them on the 16th” — after the fight for Damasak had ended — “and told them to come; they didn’t believe we were here,” Lieutenant Hassan said.