CHADIAN President Idriss Deby is optimistic that Boko Haram insurgency will end by the end of the year.
He said the combined effort by the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) has succeeded in ‘decapitating’ the terrorists, adding that “the group would be wrapped up by the end of the year.”
President Deby, who was addressing reporters in N’Djamena, the capital city, on the 55th anniversary of Chad’s independence from France, also informed that the terrorists have picked Mahamat Daoud as their new leader.
Deby said: “Boko Haram is decapitated. There are little groups (of Boko Haram members) scattered throughout east Nigeria, on the border with Cameroon. It is within our power to definitively overcome Boko Haram.
“The war will be short, with the setting up of the regional force, it will be over by the end of the year.”
He added that the 10,000 MNJTF strong force put together by the Chad Basin countries of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Republic of Benin has a mandate to end Boko Haram’s bloody six-year insurgency.
According to the Chadian leader, the force would be “operational in a few days”.
Deby further claimed that Boko Haram was no longer led by the fearsome Abubakar Shekau and that his successor was open to talks.
He said: “There is someone apparently called Mahamat Daoud who is said to have replaced Abubakar Shekau and he wants to negotiate with the Nigerian government.
“For my part, I would advise not to negotiate with a terrorist,” Deby, whose country has been spearheading the regional anti-Boko Haram fight, said.
While claiming progress in the fight against the terrorists, who have repeatedly hit border areas of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and wrought havoc in northeast Nigeria, Deby admitted that suicide bombers still posed a threat.
In the past few weeks, suicide bombers, many of them women, have staged several attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad.
The challenge, Deby said, was to “avoid terrorist acts and that’s why we must organise at the regional level to prevent bomb-making materials and other explosives entering our countries.”
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