Boko Haram: Chadian tanks head for Nigeria, Cameroon.

Dozens of Chadian tanks headed
out of the capital, N’Djamena, on
Friday, south towards Cameroon to
help fight the dreaded Boko Haram
insurgents.
The convoy, seen by an AFP
journalist, roared out of the city
after Chad’s parliament voted to
send armed forces to Cameroon
and Nigeria to fight against the
Islamists.
It is rumoured to be eventually
heading to Baga, the town on the
shores of Lake Chad were as many
as 2,000 people were massacred by
the militants in a raid on January 7
described by US Secretary of State
John Kerry as a “crime against
humanity.”
Cameroon’s President Paul Biya
had announced on Thursday that
his Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby
had agreed to send “a substantial
contingent” of troops to help
Cameroonian armed forces, who
have faced repeated attacks from
Boko Haram.
The Russian ambassador to the
country also pledged to supply
Cameroon with more modern
weapons to combat the extremists.
The deployment came as the head
of the west African ECOWAS bloc
called for tougher action against
Boko Haram, floating the possibility
of a special African Union summit on
“a plan of action to deal
permanently with the issue of
terror on our continent.”
Ghana’s President John Dramani
Mahama said, “We cannot stand by
silently, idly waiting for the
international community to
intervene on our behalf, not when
our brothers and sisters are being
butchered and burnt in their homes
and on the streets of their villages
and towns.”
A source close to the Chadian
army said the force had begun
preparing for departure on
Thursday.
Boko Haram is fighting to create a
hardline Islamic state in northeast
Nigeria along the border with Chad,
Cameroon and Niger. But it has
recently expanded its attacks to
neighbouring countries.
Cameroon has been critical of the
passivity of the Nigerian authorities
and of muted international reaction
in the face of Boko Haram
aggression.
Since Boko Haram’s insurgency
began, around 135,000 people have
fled the restive northeast of
Nigeria, and at least 850,000 have
been displaced inside the region.
So far Chad has been spared, but its
border is not far from the Islamists’
strongholds in the Nigerian state of
Borno.
The entry of Chadian forces in the
increasingly regional fight against
Boko Haram may prove valuable in
halting the extremists’ sweeping
offensives.