Nigeria, Chad Strengthen Strategic MoU To Wipe Out Boko Haram

THE Nigerian military and their Chadian counterpart have strengthened a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) earlier signed to wipe out the menace of the Boko Haram insurgency. 

  The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, who signed the MoU on behalf of the Federal Government, said the multi-lateral agreement which was signed on January 18, this year, was not perfected, though “we have been working together since, and they came in now to clear some grey areas. That is what we have done, and we have just made an addendum to the MOU that we signed on the 18th of January,” he said.

  The Nigerian CDS, who for strategic reasons did not disclose the content of the MoU, stated that the Chadian forces would send in 2,500 of their troops, as would Nigeria, making a total of 5,000 troops from the two countries. He, however, lamented that the meeting, which was intended to fine-tune the strategies to take on the terrorists, should have come earlier than now.

  The countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission have a Multinational Task Force that is currently tackling the insurgency given that it affects them all. Cameroun and Niger are the other two countries with forces in the task force.

  Earlier the Chadian CDS Major General Ibrahim Seid Mahamat said the essence of their visit to Nigeria was to put finishing touches to the collaboration with Nigeria to stamp out the Boko Haram menace.

  “We are here to discuss the issue of Boko Haram and how we will coordinate and probably eradicate it. As you are aware, our forces are already on the ground, we had before now already engaged the insurgents. And the essence of our visit is to see how we will relate and see how we will destroy this insurgency that is not only in our region but the entire sub region,” Mahamat said.