President Idriss Deby makes the announcement on Thursday, that’s his country’s army will no longer participate in the regional fight against armed groups.
“Our troops have died for Lake Chad and the Sahel. From today, no Chadian soldiers will take part in a military mission outside Chad,” he said during a national TV broadcast.
Boko Haram Extremist group carried out its deadliest-ever attack on the army in March, killing nearly 100 soldiers in an ambush.
“Chad is alone in shouldering all the burden of the war against Boko Haram,” Deby publicly complained last weekend.
However, it is not clear how the decision would impact the anti-jihadist operations of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) comprised of troops from countries bordering Lake Chad. Its work had already been complicated by divisions and a lack of cooperation.
On Thursday, the army said a further 52 soldiers had died in the 10-day counter-operation against Boko Haram, which it said had killed 1,000 of the militants and driven them from two island bases in the lake, which borders Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria.
Chad’s armed forces are among the most respected in the region, a reputation forged during decades of war and rebellions, and honed in a 2013 campaign against al Qaeda-linked Extremists in the deserts of northern Mali.
The country is currently one of the leading partners in a West African coalition in the fight against Boko Haram. Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon are members of a multinational force formed to defeat Boko Haram, which had embarked on a jihad in Nigeria in 2009 before spreading to neighbouring countries.
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