ALASHOCK'S BLOG

About 2,000 Chadian troops crossed into Nigeria yesterday [Feb. 3] to fight Boko Haram insurgents, reports quoting that country’s military sources said. For almost an hour, Chadian warplanes struck Boko Haram positions, Associated France Press (AFP) reported yesterday. The report said after the airstrikes, armoured vehicles then rolled across the bridge linking Fotokol town in Cameroon with Gamboru in Nigeria, clearing the way for the infantry.

Up until now, Chad’s military had conducted air strikes against the armed extremists via Cameroon, which has recently endured Boko Haram raids. The entire Chadian contingent had crossed the frontier by mid-day without a shot being fired, an AFP correspondent said.

Chad’s President Idriss Deby sent 2,500 soldiers to Cameroon in mid-January to help take on Boko Haram insurgents. Boko Haram took control of several towns on the northeastern border in a major offensive launched early this year and stepped up attacks against neighbouring countries, mainly Cameroon.

Chadian soldiers have also been deployed in the Lake Chad area where the borders of Nigeria, Chad and Niger converge.

Nigerian military confirmed Monday that Gamboru had been reclaimed after three days of air strikes by Chadian warplanes.

Reuters News Agency also reported yesterday that Chadian troops clashed with Boko Haram fighters in Gamboru in a bid to break the insurgents’ grip on the town bordering Cameroon. It said the fighting in Gamboru broke out as hundreds of Chadian soldiers massed near the town of Diffa in Niger Republic, near Nigerian border northwest of the lake.

“Our troops entered Nigeria this morning. The combat is ongoing,” one of the sources at Chad’s army headquarters told Reuters about the fighting in Gamboru. The encounter occurred after the militants had launched attacks across a border bridge, during which Chad’s air force carried out strikes on insurgent positions, Chadian and Cameroon military sources told Reuters.

The road from Gamboru to Fotokol in Cameroon is one of Boko Haram’s major supply routes. It has been hampered since Cameroon deployed Special Forces to the area in mid-2014, leading to fierce fighting in the area.

The Nigerian government said on Monday that Gamboru alongside several other towns in the region including Mafa, Mallam Fatori, Abadam and Marte had been liberated from Boko Haram.

Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade told Reuters via a text message that it was the Nigerian forces that planned and were driving the offensive against Boko Haram. “The Chadians are...working in concert with the overall plan for an all-round move against the terrorists as agreed,” Olukolade said.