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Chad Suggests it May Withdraw from Regional Security Force 

November 7, 2024 | Africa
November 7, 2024
AfricaChad

11/7/2024 Chad (International Christian Concern) — During a visit to Lake Chad, located on Chad’s Western border with Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon, Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby announced a new operation against terrorist forces operating in the region. He also threatened to withdraw from a cooperative security force that has proven ineffective in its mission to eliminate the terrorist groups fighting for power and territory in the area.

Located only about 62 miles north of the Chadian capital of N’djamena, the Lake Chad region has become a global hotspot for terrorism in recent years. Chad’s military is respected in the region, so its withdrawal from the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) would be a major blow to Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon, the other members of the coalition.

Nigeria also has significant military and intelligence capabilities, including units trained by the U.S. military. Still, it has so far proved incapable of standing up any effective resistance to Boko Haram, the Islamic State group (IS), al-Qaida, and the other smaller groups wreaking havoc in and around its Northeastern border with Chad.

President Deby’s threat to withdraw from the MNJTF came as representatives from the United Kingdom arrived in Nigeria to discuss a strategic partnership on economic and security issues.

Founded as an Islamic school in 2002, Boko Haram quickly developed an agenda of radical Islamism and, in 2009, began a campaign of violence that continues today. While the group has splintered and changed leaders several times since its founding — today it calls itself Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, or JAS — the group has maintained its violent tendencies and has a “priority scale” of targets, with Christians at the top, followed by the government and Muslims who have not joined the group.

After Boko Haram declared allegiance to (IS) in 2015, part of the group split off in 2016. It formed a separate terrorist organization that soon wrested IS recognition from the original group and is today known as the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP).

According to a 2024 report published by International Crisis Group, former members of both terrorist groups report that internecine strife between Boko Haram and IS has caused more damage to the groups than all the efforts of the U.S.-supported government taskforces in the last two years combined. The conflict between groups should not, however, be interpreted as a success for MNJTF or other anti-terror efforts, as both terror groups have proven themselves superior to the feeble government resistance mounted against them.

In recent years, Africa has become the global hotbed of terrorism. Nearly half of the deaths by terrorism globally happen in Africa, highlighting the shifting priorities of groups like IS and al-Qaida, which originated in the Middle East but, in recent years, have turned their focus to sub-Saharan Africa. Locally grown terrorist organizations like Nigeria’s Boko Haram and Somalia’s al-Shabab also wreak havoc, killing thousands and displacing many more since their founding.

To read more news stories, visit the ICC Newsroom. For interviews, please email [email protected]. 

To read more news stories, visit the ICC Newsroom
For interviews, please email [email protected]

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