French military aircraft are carrying out surveillance missions to help countries bordering Nigeria tackle Boko Haram militants, officials said on Tuesday, amid efforts by African countries to coordinate a response to the threat posed by the group.
The African Union (AU) has authorized a force of 7,500 troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin to fight the militants. It is expected to seek a United Nations Security Council mandate, which could also include logistical support from other countries. “Our air force is carrying out reconnaissance missions, but not over Nigeria,” said a French defence ministry source. “Our support is limited to neighbouring countries such as Chad and Niger.” The source added intelligence was being given to Chadian forces currently fighting Boko Haram on the Cameroon and Nigeria border region.
Speaking at a ceremony on Tuesday marking the accidental death of nine French airmen inSpain last month, French President Francois Hollande had earlier said aircraft were currently operating over Nigeria. Clarifying Hollande’s comments, the presidential palace said French planes were not flying over Nigeria, but that France was “cooperating in the fight against Boko Haram”. Hollande said in May that Rafale fighter jets would be used for reconnaissance missions to help find some 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram.
Since then there has been no official comment on any French operations in the country. France has headquartered its 3,200-strong Sahel counter-insurgency force, Barkhane, in the Chadian capital N’Djamena, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Nigerian border. It has fighter jets based there and in Niger, where it also has surveillance drones.
Paris has ruled out direct military involvement for now, but said it can play a role in easing tensions and instigating dialogue between its three former colonies – Chad, Niger and Cameroon – and anglophone Nigeria. “France is in D’Djamena. We have the capacity to do surveillance and provide intelligence,” a French diplomatic source said.”Our job is to put some oil in the cogs between Nigeria and its neighbours.”
Meanwhile, Chadian troops clashed with Boko Haram fighters in the northeastern Nigerian town of Gambaru today in a bid to break the Islamist insurgents’ grip on the town bordering Cameroon, Chadian military sources said. Chad has deployed some 2,500 troops as part of a regional effort to take on the militant group that has waged a bloody insurgency to create an Islamist emirate in northern Nigeria, which killed an estimated 10,000 people last year.
The fighting in Gambaru, south of Lake Chad, came as hundreds of Chadian soldiers massed near the town of Diffa in Niger, near the Nigerian border northwest of the lake, military sources in Niger said. “Our troops entered Nigeria this morning. The combat is ongoing,” one of the sources at Chad’s army headquarters told Reuters about the fighting in Gambaru.
The attack followed days of intense combat between Boko Haram fighters and Chadian forces in Cameroon, during which Chad’s air force carried out strikes on insurgent positions, Chadian and Cameroon military sources told Reuters. Boko Haram fighters had launched attacks across the border bridge from Gambaru into Cameroon, the sources said. The road from Gambaru to Fotokol in Cameroon is one of Boko Haram’s major supply routes. It has been hampered since Cameroon deployed Special Forces to the area in mid-2014, leading to fierce fighting in the area.
The Nigerian government said on Monday that Gambaru alongside several other towns in the region including Mafa, Mallam Fatori, Abadam and Marte had been liberated from Boko Haram. Nigeria’s Defence Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade told Reuters via a text message that it was the Nigerian forces that planned and were driving the offensive against Boko Haram. “The Chadians are…working in concert with the overall plan for an all round move against the terrorists as agreed, “Olukolade said.
