Boko Haram: Nigeria, Chad Deploy 7,500 Soldiers

Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh

The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, has put the total number of troops involved in the joint operations between federal troops and the Chadian forces at 7,500 soldiers.

The CDS said that military had deployed 5,000 soldiers to work with a total of between 2,000 to 2,500 forces in the coordinated action against the Boko Haram.

Badeh made the comment while speaking with journalists at the end of a meeting between the leadership of the nation’s defence sector and the Chief of Defence Staff of Chad, Maj.-Gen. Brahim Mahammat and other top officers from Chad in Abuja on Friday.

He added that the 5,000 soldiers deployed specifically to work with the Chadians were in addition to all Nigerian forces available to fight the insurgents.

The CDS said that the Chadian troops had commenced operation from Gamboru Ngala while Nigerian troops were operating from the South with an arrangement to meet somewhere at the centre.

Badeh and his Chadian counterpart signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the ongoing allied operation against the Boko Haram after six hours of a closed door meeting of senior military and security personnel from the two countries.

But the Defence Chief refused to disclose the details in the MOU for security reasons.

Badeh said that the Chadian military delegation was in Abuja to clarify some grey areas involving the operation which were sorted out during the six-hour long meeting.

The CDS who was silent on the number of troops being contributed by the Camerounian government to the joint operation also declined to speak on the casualty figure suffered by the Camerounians in the Boko Haram attack on Fotokol, on Wednesday.

“But I want you to know that Chadian Forces in Nigerian territory are mostly in the border town of Fotokol and Gamboru Ngala on the basis of the bilateral agreement we signed with them.

“We have been working together for a while; they came here now to clear some grey areas; that is what we have done. We have just met as an addendum to the MOU that we signed on January 18.”

Source: Punch