Boko Haram
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- Boko Haram
Chad's President Idriss Deby, a wily survivor of rebellions, is looking to bolster his powerbroker role in the Sahel and his nation's own security by backing peace talks between neighbour Nigeria's government and Islamist Boko Haram insurgents. The Boko Haram rebels, whose five-year revolt has killed thousands and caused mayhem in the northeast of Africa's biggest economy Nigeria, have been threatening Chad's own frontiers and disrupting cross-border trade. With jihadist fighters prowling Libya's deserts to the north, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb active in the west, and rebels and janjaweed militia battling in Sudan's Darfur region to its east, Chad already finds itself in the eye of the storm. Deby, a former fighter pilot who took power in a 1990 coup, survived offensives by Sudan-backed rebels in 2006 and 2008. He can ill afford a violent Islamist onslaught by Boko Haram in the southern Lake Chad border region of his oil-producing nation. To pre-empt this threat, Deby's government quietly started in September mediating negotiations between Nigeria and Boko Haram, aimed at securing the release of 200 schoolgirls seized in April in the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok. Nigeria's military unexpectedly made the initiative public last month. Chad says the peace talks are still on track despite a recently released video that appears to show Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau saying the Chibok girls had been "married off" to his fighters, contradicting an earlier announcement of a deal to release them. "We have a huge interest in resolving these talks," said a senior Chadian diplomat, adding that Boko Haram's activities in the porous frontier around Lake Chad were difficult to control."We're worried that they'll come here next."
A breakthrough on the talks would help Deby strengthen his reputation as a regional powerbroker, a role welcomed by former colonial ruler France as it seeks to stop being 'Africa's policeman' and hand that job to local African allies. "One reason for Chadian involvement is the country's posturing as a regional hegemon," said Ryan Cummings, chief analyst at crisis management group Red 24. Chad's army is considered one of Africa's most battle-ready and played a frontline role alongside the French in an operation in 2013 against Islamic fighters in Mali's desert north. Its soldiers also formed the backbone of an African Union peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic to the south, until they withdrew after U.N. accusations of killing civilians. Last year, Chad earned a seat on the U.N. Security Council and Deby has gained prominence chairing regional summits. But if the talks being brokered by Chad fall through, Deby's government not only risks losing face but also an opportunity to defuse the threat from the Nigerian militant group whose centre of activity in Nigeria's northeast Borno State is menacingly less than 100 km (60 miles) from the Chadian capital. A video, seen by Reuters, of the executions in September of Chadian herdsmen by a group identified as an offshoot of Boko Haram in Chad is viewed by local politicians and residents as evidence of the feared spillover of the Islamists' violence. The leader of the faction shown in the video, Abdel Aziz, mimics the posturing of Boko Haram leader Shekau but speaks the Boudouma language used in the border area of Chad and Nigeria. "A couple of months ago we talked about sleeper cells of Boko Haram in the lake region," said a security source in Chad working for an international organisation. "But we can't say that any more because they have started waking up." In recent months, Chad has changed its attitude to Boko Haram. Chadian forces are stepping up surveillance and have made several arrests, residents and security sources say. It has also pledged 700 troops for a cross-border force in the Lake Chad region to counter the group, due to start operations this month.
France, which uses N'Djamena as a base for its Operation Barkhane against jihadists in the Sahel, is monitoring Boko Haram activities in Nigeria and assists the Chadian army. A diplomatic resolution to the Boko Haram issue could also help Deby, serving his fourth term and with no clear rivals for the coming 2016 election, to stave off pressure from Western partners to make further steps towards democratisation. "By increasing Chad's strategic importance in the region, he has made himself an indispensable ally to key international partners who will both ease pressure on him to reform, and potentially intervene in the event that threats to his regime increase," said Roddy Barclay at Control Risks. For the moment, Chadian soldiers in camouflage sit idle beneath patches of shade on N'Djamena's sun-drenched boulevards, and the capital seems once again in tune with its Arabic name, meaning "Place of Rest". The trees outside the presidential palace have grown back but still bear the scars of Chad's turbulent past. In 2008, as Sudanese-backed rebels bore down on Deby's heavily fortified stronghold through the streets of the capital, they were hacked back to stumps to destroy any cover. A dwindling group of presidential guards fought the rebels from trenches outside the palace but at the last minute France stepped in to save Deby. It provided intelligence and logistical support for Deby's troops, giving him a critical advantage over insurgents in pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns. But pillaging by Boko Haram fighters of trade routes in Nigeria and Cameroon, two of Chad's main commercial partners, has already cut commerce to the landlocked Sahel state, in a sign of how much it stands to lose from a widening insurgency.
In the twisting corridors of N'Djamena's Grand Marche, where generators roar to power electric fans in the midday heat, shopkeepers say their livelihoods have been affected by the drop in commerce with northern Nigeria and Cameroon. Abdullah Mega, a 30-year-old shopkeeper in a silver boubou robe seated on a red prayer mat, said a seven-vehicle convoy carrying his shipment of appliances was robbed and torched on the road from the northeastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri last year. He says that he has started importing merchandise from Dubai instead, but complains the extra costs are crushing his margins. "Nigeria is an extension of our own house and that's the room where we can make the profits," he said. Cattle trading, the second biggest business for Chad after oil, has also been hurt by the deterioration in security. Ali Baigou, head of a union representing herders, says its members lost more than 8,000 cattle in two Boko Haram attacks in August in northern Nigeria as they headed to a regional market. "The government should stand up against this," he said.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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- Boko Haram
Chad's President Idriss Deby, a wily survivor of rebellions, is looking to bolster his powerbroker role in the Sahel and his nation's own security by backing peace talks between neighbour Nigeria's government and Islamist Boko Haram insurgents. The Boko Haram rebels, whose five-year revolt has killed thousands and caused mayhem in the northeast of Africa's biggest economy Nigeria, have been threatening Chad's own frontiers and disrupting cross-border trade. With jihadist fighters prowling Libya's deserts to the north, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb active in the west, and rebels and janjaweed militia battling in Sudan's Darfur region to its east, Chad already finds itself in the eye of the storm. Deby, a former fighter pilot who took power in a 1990 coup, survived offensives by Sudan-backed rebels in 2006 and 2008. He can ill afford a violent Islamist onslaught by Boko Haram in the southern Lake Chad border region of his oil-producing nation. To pre-empt this threat, Deby's government quietly started in September mediating negotiations between Nigeria and Boko Haram, aimed at securing the release of 200 schoolgirls seized in April in the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok. Nigeria's military unexpectedly made the initiative public last month. Chad says the peace talks are still on track despite a recently released video that appears to show Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau saying the Chibok girls had been "married off" to his fighters, contradicting an earlier announcement of a deal to release them. "We have a huge interest in resolving these talks," said a senior Chadian diplomat, adding that Boko Haram's activities in the porous frontier around Lake Chad were difficult to control."We're worried that they'll come here next."
A breakthrough on the talks would help Deby strengthen his reputation as a regional powerbroker, a role welcomed by former colonial ruler France as it seeks to stop being 'Africa's policeman' and hand that job to local African allies. "One reason for Chadian involvement is the country's posturing as a regional hegemon," said Ryan Cummings, chief analyst at crisis management group Red 24. Chad's army is considered one of Africa's most battle-ready and played a frontline role alongside the French in an operation in 2013 against Islamic fighters in Mali's desert north. Its soldiers also formed the backbone of an African Union peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic to the south, until they withdrew after U.N. accusations of killing civilians. Last year, Chad earned a seat on the U.N. Security Council and Deby has gained prominence chairing regional summits. But if the talks being brokered by Chad fall through, Deby's government not only risks losing face but also an opportunity to defuse the threat from the Nigerian militant group whose centre of activity in Nigeria's northeast Borno State is menacingly less than 100 km (60 miles) from the Chadian capital. A video, seen by Reuters, of the executions in September of Chadian herdsmen by a group identified as an offshoot of Boko Haram in Chad is viewed by local politicians and residents as evidence of the feared spillover of the Islamists' violence. The leader of the faction shown in the video, Abdel Aziz, mimics the posturing of Boko Haram leader Shekau but speaks the Boudouma language used in the border area of Chad and Nigeria. "A couple of months ago we talked about sleeper cells of Boko Haram in the lake region," said a security source in Chad working for an international organisation. "But we can't say that any more because they have started waking up." In recent months, Chad has changed its attitude to Boko Haram. Chadian forces are stepping up surveillance and have made several arrests, residents and security sources say. It has also pledged 700 troops for a cross-border force in the Lake Chad region to counter the group, due to start operations this month.
France, which uses N'Djamena as a base for its Operation Barkhane against jihadists in the Sahel, is monitoring Boko Haram activities in Nigeria and assists the Chadian army. A diplomatic resolution to the Boko Haram issue could also help Deby, serving his fourth term and with no clear rivals for the coming 2016 election, to stave off pressure from Western partners to make further steps towards democratisation. "By increasing Chad's strategic importance in the region, he has made himself an indispensable ally to key international partners who will both ease pressure on him to reform, and potentially intervene in the event that threats to his regime increase," said Roddy Barclay at Control Risks. For the moment, Chadian soldiers in camouflage sit idle beneath patches of shade on N'Djamena's sun-drenched boulevards, and the capital seems once again in tune with its Arabic name, meaning "Place of Rest". The trees outside the presidential palace have grown back but still bear the scars of Chad's turbulent past. In 2008, as Sudanese-backed rebels bore down on Deby's heavily fortified stronghold through the streets of the capital, they were hacked back to stumps to destroy any cover. A dwindling group of presidential guards fought the rebels from trenches outside the palace but at the last minute France stepped in to save Deby. It provided intelligence and logistical support for Deby's troops, giving him a critical advantage over insurgents in pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns. But pillaging by Boko Haram fighters of trade routes in Nigeria and Cameroon, two of Chad's main commercial partners, has already cut commerce to the landlocked Sahel state, in a sign of how much it stands to lose from a widening insurgency.
In the twisting corridors of N'Djamena's Grand Marche, where generators roar to power electric fans in the midday heat, shopkeepers say their livelihoods have been affected by the drop in commerce with northern Nigeria and Cameroon. Abdullah Mega, a 30-year-old shopkeeper in a silver boubou robe seated on a red prayer mat, said a seven-vehicle convoy carrying his shipment of appliances was robbed and torched on the road from the northeastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri last year. He says that he has started importing merchandise from Dubai instead, but complains the extra costs are crushing his margins. "Nigeria is an extension of our own house and that's the room where we can make the profits," he said. Cattle trading, the second biggest business for Chad after oil, has also been hurt by the deterioration in security. Ali Baigou, head of a union representing herders, says its members lost more than 8,000 cattle in two Boko Haram attacks in August in northern Nigeria as they headed to a regional market. "The government should stand up against this," he said.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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- Boko Haram
Chad's President Idriss Deby, a wily survivor of rebellions, is looking to bolster his powerbroker role in the Sahel and his nation's own security by backing peace talks between neighbour Nigeria's government and Islamist Boko Haram insurgents. The Boko Haram rebels, whose five-year revolt has killed thousands and caused mayhem in the northeast of Africa's biggest economy Nigeria, have been threatening Chad's own frontiers and disrupting cross-border trade. With jihadist fighters prowling Libya's deserts to the north, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb active in the west, and rebels and janjaweed militia battling in Sudan's Darfur region to its east, Chad already finds itself in the eye of the storm. Deby, a former fighter pilot who took power in a 1990 coup, survived offensives by Sudan-backed rebels in 2006 and 2008. He can ill afford a violent Islamist onslaught by Boko Haram in the southern Lake Chad border region of his oil-producing nation. To pre-empt this threat, Deby's government quietly started in September mediating negotiations between Nigeria and Boko Haram, aimed at securing the release of 200 schoolgirls seized in April in the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok. Nigeria's military unexpectedly made the initiative public last month. Chad says the peace talks are still on track despite a recently released video that appears to show Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau saying the Chibok girls had been "married off" to his fighters, contradicting an earlier announcement of a deal to release them. "We have a huge interest in resolving these talks," said a senior Chadian diplomat, adding that Boko Haram's activities in the porous frontier around Lake Chad were difficult to control."We're worried that they'll come here next."
A breakthrough on the talks would help Deby strengthen his reputation as a regional powerbroker, a role welcomed by former colonial ruler France as it seeks to stop being 'Africa's policeman' and hand that job to local African allies. "One reason for Chadian involvement is the country's posturing as a regional hegemon," said Ryan Cummings, chief analyst at crisis management group Red 24. Chad's army is considered one of Africa's most battle-ready and played a frontline role alongside the French in an operation in 2013 against Islamic fighters in Mali's desert north. Its soldiers also formed the backbone of an African Union peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic to the south, until they withdrew after U.N. accusations of killing civilians. Last year, Chad earned a seat on the U.N. Security Council and Deby has gained prominence chairing regional summits. But if the talks being brokered by Chad fall through, Deby's government not only risks losing face but also an opportunity to defuse the threat from the Nigerian militant group whose centre of activity in Nigeria's northeast Borno State is menacingly less than 100 km (60 miles) from the Chadian capital. A video, seen by Reuters, of the executions in September of Chadian herdsmen by a group identified as an offshoot of Boko Haram in Chad is viewed by local politicians and residents as evidence of the feared spillover of the Islamists' violence. The leader of the faction shown in the video, Abdel Aziz, mimics the posturing of Boko Haram leader Shekau but speaks the Boudouma language used in the border area of Chad and Nigeria. "A couple of months ago we talked about sleeper cells of Boko Haram in the lake region," said a security source in Chad working for an international organisation. "But we can't say that any more because they have started waking up." In recent months, Chad has changed its attitude to Boko Haram. Chadian forces are stepping up surveillance and have made several arrests, residents and security sources say. It has also pledged 700 troops for a cross-border force in the Lake Chad region to counter the group, due to start operations this month.
France, which uses N'Djamena as a base for its Operation Barkhane against jihadists in the Sahel, is monitoring Boko Haram activities in Nigeria and assists the Chadian army. A diplomatic resolution to the Boko Haram issue could also help Deby, serving his fourth term and with no clear rivals for the coming 2016 election, to stave off pressure from Western partners to make further steps towards democratisation. "By increasing Chad's strategic importance in the region, he has made himself an indispensable ally to key international partners who will both ease pressure on him to reform, and potentially intervene in the event that threats to his regime increase," said Roddy Barclay at Control Risks. For the moment, Chadian soldiers in camouflage sit idle beneath patches of shade on N'Djamena's sun-drenched boulevards, and the capital seems once again in tune with its Arabic name, meaning "Place of Rest". The trees outside the presidential palace have grown back but still bear the scars of Chad's turbulent past. In 2008, as Sudanese-backed rebels bore down on Deby's heavily fortified stronghold through the streets of the capital, they were hacked back to stumps to destroy any cover. A dwindling group of presidential guards fought the rebels from trenches outside the palace but at the last minute France stepped in to save Deby. It provided intelligence and logistical support for Deby's troops, giving him a critical advantage over insurgents in pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns. But pillaging by Boko Haram fighters of trade routes in Nigeria and Cameroon, two of Chad's main commercial partners, has already cut commerce to the landlocked Sahel state, in a sign of how much it stands to lose from a widening insurgency.
In the twisting corridors of N'Djamena's Grand Marche, where generators roar to power electric fans in the midday heat, shopkeepers say their livelihoods have been affected by the drop in commerce with northern Nigeria and Cameroon. Abdullah Mega, a 30-year-old shopkeeper in a silver boubou robe seated on a red prayer mat, said a seven-vehicle convoy carrying his shipment of appliances was robbed and torched on the road from the northeastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri last year. He says that he has started importing merchandise from Dubai instead, but complains the extra costs are crushing his margins. "Nigeria is an extension of our own house and that's the room where we can make the profits," he said. Cattle trading, the second biggest business for Chad after oil, has also been hurt by the deterioration in security. Ali Baigou, head of a union representing herders, says its members lost more than 8,000 cattle in two Boko Haram attacks in August in northern Nigeria as they headed to a regional market. "The government should stand up against this," he said.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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- Boko Haram
Sama Ernest
Heavy rains have flooded and inflicted serious and even greater damage and pain to the inhabitants of Adamawa, Nord and Extreme Nord regions of Cameroon- an area already under intense military and terrorist action from both the Cameroonian government forces and the Boko Haram terrorist group from Northern Nigeria. Our sources in the north of Cameroon say water has virtually washed away many houses leaving many people homeless. Cameroon Concord also learnt that the Cameroon elite force known as Genie Militaire have mobilised 500 youth in Maroua to help in relief efforts. The youth who come from all over the country have been given sand bags to block the approaching waters.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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- Boko Haram
The Catholic Church has complained that Boko Haram insurgents have taken over the parish rectory of its church and other houses of Christians following last week’s attack on Madagali in Adamawa State, Northeast Nigeria.
The church, in an electronic press statement by the Director, Catholic Social Communications in-charge of the Maiduguri Diocese, Rev. Fr. Gideon Obasogie, said though the members of the outlawed sect have not been known to draw a line of demarcation of whom to visit or not to visit with mayhem, adding that, "in recent times, it seems that Christians and Christian institutions have been at the receiving end of the attacks by the terrorists."
Obasogie said this in Madagali, which is a local government that borders Borno and Adamawa States, and the closest town to Gwoza with a large number of Catholics, and members of other Christian denominations.
The town also has a good number of Muslims, he said, stressing that “the whole town and the parish rectory have been occupied by the terrorists, so many structures and items have been vandalised. Dozens have been killed and a lot of church structures have been burnt down”.
He lamented that “Christians in the town are really in a terrible situation; a moment of great persecution. Christian men are caught and beheaded, while Christian women are forced to become Muslims and are taken as wives to the terrorists.
“The houses of Christians that have fled are now occupied by the terrorists; their cars are used by the terrorists. Some Muslims around identify Christian homes to be occupied and the Christians hiding were also exposed and they were killed.
“Strict Sharia Laws have been promulgated, as observed by a woman who luckily escaped the dead zone”.
He added: “The situation as it is has really and truly gone out of control. People are finding it really hard, citizens are being killed in their numbers.”
He expressed hope that the federal government would be more proactive in handling the dwindling state of insecurity that has enveloped the entire North-east.
The clergyman said the Catholic Church was compelled to close down all the parishes on the major road linking Maiduguri and Adamawa States because of the acts of terrorism.
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- Boko Haram
At least 25 people were killed in Cameroon, among them a church leader, as militants carried out two spectacular attacks in the far north of Cameroon at the end of July. In one attack in the town of Kolofata, the wife of the Deputy Prime Minister and her maid were kidnapped, raising fears that the area has become a new battle-field for Nigeria's Islamist group Boko Haram.
In the second attack, Pastor Jean Marcel Kesvere of the Lutheran Brethren Church of Cameroon, was kidnapped. His family found out later he'd been killed.
Recently, regional governments—from Niger, Chad, Cameroon, along with Nigeria—pledged to set up a joint-force to fight the Boko Haram crisis that has spread across all their borders.
But for now the radical sect, responsible for the kidnapping of more 200 school girls in Chibok, continues its deadly killing spree.
About 10 members of security forces were killed in a daring attack, targeting military positions, at Bargaram on Thursday afternoon July 24. This assault, carried out by heavily armed men, lasted until July 25. An unknown number of people were abducted, among them Pastor Jean Marcel Kesvere. His decomposed body was found on the evening of July 28 in a bush near the small town of Kamouna, 7 km (4.3 miles) from Bargaram.
Kesvere, 45, was born in Cameroon, trained in neighboring Chad and was sent back to Bargaram by the Lutheran Brethren Church, where he served for more than two years. He is survived by his wife and eight children.
Kesvere's kidnap and assassination has plunged the Christian community into shock. ''We are in great pain for the loss of a colleague devoted to his ministry'' says a church member, whose identity cannot be disclosed for security reasons. He did not know why Kesvere suffered such a fate.
According to local sources, the second attack in the area was particularly violent and well planned. Hundreds of militants wearing Cameroonian army uniforms stormed the town of Kolofata, about 5 km (about 3 miles) from Nigeria's border, early Sunday morning July 27, shelling indiscriminately and looting homes.
The assailants targeted the residence of Amadou Ali, the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of parliamentary relations, who'd arrived earlier in his home town to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Mr Ali was not present during the attack but his wife and her maid were abducted, along with the influential local community and religious leader, theSultan of Kolofata, Seiny Boukar Lamine, his wife and their five children.
In total, about 22 people were missing and their whereabouts is still unknown. The assailants also targeted the hospital, apparently in search of two workers of Western origin. But the foreign employees were on holiday, our local source added. At least 18 civilians and members of security forces were killed. Local sources contacted by World Watch Monitor said that the lifeless bodies of the victims were laid along the way to the residence of the Deputy Prime Minister. Some of them, mutilated by machetes, were unidentifiable.
The far north of Cameroon is a vast semi-desert area composed of three provinces (Adamawa, North and Far North), bordered by Nigeria, Chad and the Central African Republic. The region has witnessed a number of abductions targeting expatriates (missionaries, tourists, workers, etc.) in recent months. Most of them were released after payment of a ransom. But this is the first kidnapping case targeting a Cameroonian church leader.
Since the announcement of the death of Pastor Kesvere, WWM has heard that reactions have come in from all sides—Christians and Muslims—to encourage Christians in the region not to cede to fear, and to stand firm in their faith. Many people, friends and relatives, headed to Maga, Kesvere's birthplace—where his family went to bury him—to give moral and spiritual support.
The Islamist insurgency and Nigeria's military crackdown have pushed thousands to seek refuge in Northern Cameroon. The arrival of thousands fleeing the ongoing inter-communities' violence in the Central African Republic to the south-east has added to the current economic and social pressures in the region. A night curfew (8pm-5am) has been in force in the Far North from mid-May.
Nevertheless on June 7, about 300 heavily armed men attacked the town of Gorsi Tourou, 400 km from Nigeria's border. According to local sources contacted by WWM eight members of local churches were killed and four churches burned down. Dozens of residents, frightened by the attack, sought refuge in neighboring areas, mainly in Maroua, the capital of the Far North of Cameroon.
On May 22-23 unknown gunmen attacked the village of Biboumza, in Touboro area,near the Central African Republic border. According to local sources, four villagers were killed and 56 wounded during the attack. One church and several houses were burned down and food stores were looted by the attackers who also raped a number of women, before making their way across the border.
Security forces sent to the scene the following day could only assess the scale of the damage. The assailants, suspected to be Fulani Mbororos—close to Séléka—were said to be ''avenging'' their Muslim brothers under attack from anti-Balaka militia in CAR.
Local communities were already concerned by the rising security issues in their region. In April Christian and Muslim leaders pledged to tackle the rising security issues in the region. A forum is scheduled for August 7, to raise awareness of peaceful cohabitation among youth regardless of their religious backgrounds.
Long accused of being the weakest link in the fight against Boko Haram, Cameroon seems to have decided to wield its muscles. Some 3,000 troops including members of the Rapid Intervention Battalion—Cameroon's elite forces—have been deployed along Nigeria's border said Issa Tchiroma, the Minister of Information and government spokesman, who denounced 'a very nasty aggression'' from militants and vowed to fight back.
"We have mobilized all our security and defense forces and the government will leave no stone unturned in the fighting [against Boko Haram] to bring them down."
Tchiroma admits Boko Haram is not an easy target. "The problem is we are fighting an asymmetric battle. Nobody knows who is Boko Haram exactly, they have very much infiltrated here and there, [and] it is impossible to know when they will attack".
The recent deadly attacks seem to be a revenge attack, in retaliation against a heavy verdict pronounced on July 14 against Boko Haram members, by the Special Criminal Court in Maroua. Fourteen militants charged with the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and of plotting an insurrection were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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