N’Djamena // Dozens of Chadian tanks headed out of the capital on Friday south towards Cameroon to help fight Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgents.
The convoy left the city after Chad’s parliament voted to send armed forces to Cameroon and Nigeria to fight against the extremist group.
Cameroon’s president Paul Biya had announced on Thursday that Chad’s president Idriss Deby had decided to send “a substantial contingent” of troops to help Cameroonian armed forces who have faced repeated attacks from Boko Haram.
A source close to the army said the force had begun preparing for departure on Thursday.
Earlier on Friday, Chad’s parliament in N’Djamena voted 150 to 0 to send an unspecified number of “Chadian armed troops and security forces to assist Cameroonian and Nigerian soldiers waging war against the terrorists in Cameroon and Nigeria”.
Chadian government spokesman Hassan Sylla Bakari also urged other countries in the 10-nation Economic Community of Central African States to support them.
“Chad’s government expresses its solidarity with Cameroon and is willing to provide active support to the courageous and determined response of its armed forces against the criminal and terrorist activities of Boko Haram,” Mr Bakari said.
West African leaders are considering creating a military force to fight Boko Haram and will hold a regional summit next week to discuss the issue, Ghana’s president, John Mahama, said on Friday.
“We cannot fight terrorism alone. We must find a way to act together, share information to synchronise strategies and pool our resources in order to rid the entire African continent of terrorism,” said Mr Mahama told a news conference.
Boko Haram began a campaign six years ago to impose Islamic law in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and largest oil producer, killing more than 13,000 people, according to the government. The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, this month threatened Mr Biya in a video posted on YouTube. Mr Biya sent more than 1,000 troops to the border to fight Boko Haram after the wife of deputy premier Amadou Ali was captured in July in the north of the country by gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram.
This week, most of the residents of the northern Cameroonian town of Kolofata were forced to flee after an attack by Boko Haram. Cameroonian troops killed 143 insurgents in a gun battle that lasted more than four hours.
Mr Biya welcomed the assistance from Chad which “testifies to the commitment of the two heads of state in favour of the stability, peace and security of their countries and people,” Mr Bakari said.
Cameroonian authorities told residents in the north of the country to avoid gathering in large crowds to watch the African Cup of Nations football tournament on television, in case of attacks by the insurgents, Ernest Ewango Budu, senior divisional officer for Diamare, said.
“Not only have these enemies infiltrated our population, they have equally adopted new strategies including the use of explosive belts,” he said.
At least 7,300 people fleeing attacks by Boko Haram have arrived in Chad from Nigeria since the beginning of the year, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement on Friday
The UN also said it is concerned that hundreds of refugees who fled deadly Boko Haram attacks earlier this month are being sent back from Niger to northeastern Nigeria.
The UN refugee agency said it remained unclear whether the refugees were being forced to return home despite dangerous conditions.
“UNHCR is very concerned about the return to Nigeria from Niger on January 14 of hundreds of refugees in a joint operation conducted by the governor of Borno State and the authorities in Niger,” UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters in Geneva.
A January 3 attack on the town of Baga in Borno state is thought to be the worst attack in Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency and feared to have killed hundreds, if not more.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch published separate satellite images Thursday that appeared to show massive destruction in both Baga and the adjacent town of Doron Baga.
Human Rights Watch said 11 per cent of Baga and 57 per cent of Doron Baga were flattened, most probably by fire.
* Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg News
