Chad Declares War Zone After Deadly Boko Haram Attack

Chad declared two departments near Lake Chad a “war zone”, giving local authorities more power in responding to an attack by Boko Haram jihadists who killed almost 100 soldiers earlier this week.

In the Lake Chad region, where the borders of Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger converge, the group intensified the attacks this year, building on its knowledge of the vast marshland and islands.

On Monday, militants attacked an island army base in Bohoma, killing at least 98 soldiers in the worst militant attack of all time in the country’s armed forces.

“The departments of Fouli and Kaya will be declared war zones “, according to a decree signed by President Idriss Deby Itno seen by AFP.

The government had already declared a state of emergency in the two departments bordering Niger and Nigeria.

The measures allow local and milestone officials to ban traffic and also search for homes day and night.

Deby promised a “lightning strike” response to the attack when he visited the site of the attack this week.

Chad presented its military, considered one of the most professional armies in the region, as a bulwark against terrorism until Monday’s attack in the department of Fouli.

Jihadists emerged in Nigeria in 2009 before taking their insurgency to neighboring countries, inflicting increasing loss of life and economic damage.

A senior official said Bohoma’s garrison had been weakened recently after a battalion was dispatched elsewhere.

Chad has pledged in recent months to send 480 soldiers to the “three-border area”, on the borders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, to fight jihadist groups.

Chad has dispatched troops outside its borders to cooperate in regional anti-jihadist operations in exchange for funding. But these troop movements were criticized at home, as Chadians are concerned about the growing number of attacks in the Lake Chad region.