SEE Who Are Training Chadian Soldiers To Fight Boko Haram

Chadian soldiers going through training against Boko Haram

In a bid to continue to wage war against the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-Eastern Nigeria and a few neighbouring countries, Chadian soldiers and troops from more than 20 other countries are currently undergoing training “in the deep desert” in Mao, on the edge of the Sahara.

According to the British Braodcasting Corporation, BBC, the forces were at the firing range, receiving training on machine-gun use from American special forces.

It was disclosed that the soldiers were seen queuing to lie down on a piece of cardboard, load the weapon and aim at a target around 150 metres away.

The report stated that,“The shooting session is taking place in western Chad, in a section of the Sahel region that skirts the southern edges of the Sahara Desert. It is part of Operation Flintlock, an annual counter-terrorism exercise, led by the United States and held with their Nato allies in West Africa.

“The troops may be going straight into battle as soon as the training, which is the 10th edition in the series, is over. Although Chad has played an important role in the recent successes of the military over the sect, Zakaria Ngobongue, a Brigadier-General, said intelligence still needed to be strengthened.”

“Our biggest challenge is intelligence to allow us to fight,” Ngobongue said, adding “our means may be limited, we have to make do with our weaknesses, but if our western partners are supporting us and accompanying us, I am sure that we will put an end to Boko Haram.”

Meanwhile, a British brigadier,Tom Copinger-Symes, said that western partners support in the fight against Boko Haram would keep coming.

 “We are in a phase now of persistent engagement and a regular rhythm of involvement with our partners, but keeping our footprint light, rather than just an episodic burst and then just go away again.

“A light footprint can mean everything from low-level training, tactics, to coordination, to intelligence fusion and really how to work together within a coalition,” he said.

Mao

After Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS on Saturday, James Linder, a Major-General and commander of US special operations command, called for stronger regional cooperation to combat extremist groups.
“We can’t fight these enemies alone,” Linder said, adding “one man can’t do it alone, one nation can’t do it alone. We have to work together.”

US special forces.

It was however gathered that the United States military and its Western partners conduct this training annually and set up plans long before Boko Haram began attacking its neighbours— Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
Chadian Brigadier-General Zakaria Ngobongue, said on Monday that his soldiers, alongside troops from Niger, had entered Nigeria.
“Already, Chadian forces had crossed into the North-Eastern Nigeria from Cameroon to fight the jihadis,” he said.

Ngobongue declined to give details about the ongoing operation.
Also, Major General James Linder, Commander of US Special Operations Command Africa, says: “All of us are concerned about the instability in Libya and how that spreads across the region – whether it’s the movement of foreign fighters or whether it’s the movement of weapons systems, that put many different nations at risk.”
Describing the stepped-up military activity, Nigerian military spokesperson, Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade, said on Sunday night that “there were some pre-emptive manoeuvres along an axis in the theatre. Nigerian forces were also involved.
A source informed that British forces have been training Nigerian units over the last few years, and are doing so in Flintlock.
Meanwhile, it was informed that the Nigerian special forces run past Chadian troops in a hostage rescue exercise at the end of the Flintlock exercise in Mao, Chad, on Saturday, March 7.

It was reported at the weekend that Chadian and Niger military launched a joint army operation against Boko Haram militants and in the process, they retook two towns Malam Fatouri and Damasak in Nigeria’s northeast.
According to an anonymous military source, 200 rebels were killed and about 10 Chadian soldiers lost their lives and 20 were wounded in the offensive that began on Sunday, March 8.

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