Chadian President sets December date to end Boko Haram insurgency

CHADIAN President Idriss Deby is optimistic that Boko Haram insurgency will end by the end of the year.

Abubakar Shekau

He said the combined effort by the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) has succeeded in ‘decapitating’ the terrorists, adding that “the group would be wrapped up by the end of the year.”

President Deby, who was addressing reporters in N’Djamena, the capital city, on the 55th anniversary of Chad’s independence from France, also informed that the terrorists have picked  Mahamat Daoud as their new leader.

Deby said: “Boko Haram is decapitated. There are little groups (of Boko Haram members) scattered throughout east Nigeria, on the border with Cameroon. It is within our power to definitively overcome Boko Haram.

“The war will be short, with the setting up of the regional force, it will be over by the end of the year.”

He added that the 10,000 MNJTF strong force put together by the Chad Basin countries of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Republic of Benin has a mandate to end Boko Haram’s bloody six-year insurgency.

According to the Chadian leader, the force would be “operational in a few days”.

Deby further claimed that Boko Haram was no longer led by the fearsome Abubakar Shekau and that his successor was open to talks.

He said: “There is someone apparently called Mahamat Daoud who is said to have replaced Abubakar Shekau and he wants to negotiate with the Nigerian government.

“For my part, I would advise not to negotiate with a terrorist,” Deby, whose country has been spearheading the regional anti-Boko Haram fight, said.

While claiming progress in the fight against the terrorists, who have repeatedly hit border areas of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and wrought havoc in northeast Nigeria, Deby admitted that suicide bombers still posed a threat.

In the past few weeks, suicide bombers, many of them women, have staged several attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad.

The challenge, Deby said, was to “avoid terrorist acts and that’s why we must organise at the regional level to prevent bomb-making materials and other explosives entering our countries.”

Chadian President sets December date to end Boko Haram insurgency

Alleged Boko Haram links: BBOG Group to storm Chadian Embassy

The #BringBackOurGirls group will today storm the Chadian Embassy in Abuja to protest against the alleged supply of weapons by its government official.

An online media, Saharareporters quoted a Cameroonian investigative journalist, Bisong Etahoben, via his Twitter, as saying that Mr Gnoti claimed that President Idriss Déby gave him “the funds to purchase the weapons, waved a presidential pass issued to him by Mr Deby’s office in order to get past border guards, but was stopped and searched by the guards who found the deadly weapons on him.”

The group, which has been advocating for the rescue of the remaining 219 school girls abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, said the botched ceasefire deal mediated by the Chadian President, Idriss Déby, and now the report of Mr Mahamat Bichara Gnoti, were suspicious instances.

The group noted that with the ceasefire deal, the Nigeria government and the Nigeria people relaxed and put their trust in the Chadian president, only for the Boko Haram to capture more towns and failed to release the Chibok girls.

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan had also on Monday paid an emergency visit to Chad where he held a closed-door meeting with the country’s president, Déby.

After the closed-door meeting, President Jonathan reiterated the need for Nigeria and her neighbours to intensify joint actions and cooperation to win the war against terrorism and insurgency.

The president, according to Reuben Abati, told reporters that Boko Haram had a lot of external influence from outside Africa and it had become even more imperative for all countries in the region to work together to overcome terrorism and other criminal activities across their borders

Alleged Boko Haram links: BBOG Group to storm Chadian Embassy