DHQ Debunks Reports on Chadian Air Strikes in Nigeria...
Sect kills dozens in Niger
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) yesterday debunked reports by the Chadian military that it had carried out air strikes on Nigerian territory.
Foreign news reports had quoted an unnamed Chadian general as stating that Chadian helicopters struck at least six bases in Nigeria used by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in response to twin bombings in the capital, N’Djamena, earlier this week.
But dismissing the claim, Defence spokesman, Major-General Chris Olukolade, said: “The claim that the Chadian military have conducted air strikes against six terrorist camps in Nigeria is not correct.
“The fact is that the Nigerian Air Force surveillance mission identified (Boko Haram) targets tagged as Camp 6 around Bosso town, which is not within Nigeria’s territory and alerted the partners accordingly.
“The places reported to have been struck by the Chadians are therefore most likely to be in Niger Republic and not Nigeria as widely reported in the international media.
“Although the terms of the multilateral and bilateral understanding with partners in the war against terror allow some degree of hot pursuit against the terrorists, the territory of Nigeria has not been violated as insinuated in the reports circulated in some foreign media.”
Olukolade said the Nigerian military would continue to cooperate with its regional partners in the mission to exterminate or contain terrorists strictly in conformity with existing terms of the Concept of Operation at strategic, operational or tactical levels.
“It is however important that issues are accurately reported while avoiding misleading or unnecessary sensationalism from any quarter,” he added.
Bloomberg had reported yesterday that Chadian helicopters struck at least six bases in neighbouring Nigeria used by Boko Haram in response to twin bombings in the capital, N’Djamena, earlier this week.
According to the report, the air strikes caused “human and material damage”, the Chadian army general staff said yesterday in a statement read on national radio, without giving further details. According to Bloomberg, there was no independent confirmation of the raids.
At least 27 people, including the four assailants, died in a June 15 suicide bomb attack that targeted police facilities in N’Djamena. Chad said it had killed hundreds of the militants since January.
Chad’s government also banned people from wearing and selling full-face veils after the attacks, Prime Minister Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet said in a statement broadcast on national television Wednesday.
Under the measure ordered by President Idriss Deby, security forces would confiscate and burn any garments on sale and traders who don’t comply would be arrested, he said.
Landlocked Chad is sub-Saharan Africa’s seventhbiggest oil producer, with Glencore Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd. among the companies pumping crude.
It’s also one of the most underdeveloped countries in the world, ranking 184th out of 198 on the United Nations Human Development Index.
Even as Chad carried out air strikes in Nigerien territory, an attack by suspected Islamists in the country killed at least 38 people, officials said.
It took place late on Wednesday night, according to a security source quoted by the Reuters news agency.
A Nigerien MP Bulu Mammadu told the BBC that the victims included women and children who had been shot dead in two different villages.
Mammadu said that, as well as killing people, the militants had burnt down several houses in the two villages of Lamina and Ungumawo in the Diffa region, close to Nigeria's border.
Boko Haram first attacked Niger in February when the government said it repelled an attack, killing more than 100 of the group's fighters.
Since he was sworn in last month, President Muahammadu Buhari has hosted talks with the presidents of Niger and Chad to discuss boosting the fight against Boko Haram.
Buhari promised in a message on his Twitter feed yesterday that the “efforts to strengthen security cooperation with our neighbours and adjust our own response to Boko Haram will yield results very soon.”
Boko Haram was founded in northern Nigeria in 2002 with the aim of creating an Islamic state, and has since caused havoc through a wave of bombings, assassinations and abductions.