Led by the Chadian President ... a regional military operation against Boko Haram

Fadel Abdul Razzaq - N'Djamena

Chad announced on Tuesday that it had sent soldiers to Niger and Nigeria as part of an operation to combat the Boko Haram group, which killed about 100 Chadian soldiers on March 23. "We have the approval of two other countries, Niger and Nigeria, and we have men in these two countries," Chadian Defense Minister Mohamed Abali Salah told national television.

The Chadian minister's speech came after President Idriss Deby Itno launched a military operation he was leading himself in the Lake Chad region, which he called Puma's wrath. He wants it to be in response to the killing of 100 Boko Haram militants in a battle that took place on March 23, in which his army suffered a loss not previously experienced in the history of the confrontation with Boko Haram militants.

This prompted Chadian President Idriss Deby to deliver his first speech on the Corona virus, on the day of the massacre in his army, explaining the measures his government had taken to prevent the spread of the disease in Chad. The speech was recorded, and he rushed to the Lake Chad region to participate in the burial of dead soldiers in the battle that took place on the Puma peninsula.

The fighting of Boko Haram in the region has resulted in the death of 36,000 people and the displacement of about two million others in the northeastern region of Nigeria since 2009, according to the United Nations.

The group expanded its activities to Niger, Chad and neighboring Cameroon. Chad, Niger and Nigeria, as well as Cameroon, are located on Lake Chad, which consists of a series of lakes and swamps interspersed with small islands that have become an ideal haven for Boko Haram, which made this group and other armed organizations a permanent headache for the countries of the region .. What is the story of these organizations?

What is Boko Haram?
Boko Haram began its armed activity in 2009 in the city of Meiduguri, the capital of Borno State, in north-eastern Nigeria. The state is bordered to the east by Lake Chad, and its capital is only 120 km from the shores of the lake.

"Boko Haram" calls itself the "Ahl al-Sunna Group for Da`wah and Jihad", and Muhammad Yusuf led it in 2009, and he is the imam of a mosque in the city of Midoguri and many of his followers and supporters because of the lessons of preaching and guidance that he was providing in the general center of the group. Because he talked a lot about Western schools in Nigeria and that they were the reason for bringing about the anti-Islamic and anti-Islamic Western culture, the population called this group Boko Haram, meaning "Western education is forbidden."

Since the death of Muhammad Yusef by the Nigerian security forces in 2009. The group has been led by Abu Bakr Shekao, and from Borno State, Nigeria, adjacent to Lake Chad, the movement has expanded to carry out armed operations, such as suicide bombings, attacks on army positions, and control of cities, in most northern states of Nigeria, It then expanded to include Cameroon, Niger and Chad. The group carries out armed operations in the territories of these countries bordering Lake Chad. But it carried out several bombings in the Nigerian capital Abuja, and in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena.

Regional alliance
The Nigerian army announced five times that it had killed the movement's leader, Abu Bakr Shekao, and each time Abu Bakr Shekao appeared in public to confirm the government's lies and its failure to destroy its group.

Boko Haram entered a new stage in its career in March 2015 when it pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi at the time, and changed its name from the Ahl al-Sunna Group for Preaching and Jihad, to become West Africa in the Islamic State.

However, al-Baghdadi's decision to name Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the leader of the gunmen instead of Shikaw, which was rejected by Shikaw, led to the splitting of the Boko Haram group into two groups affiliated with the Islamic State, and another affiliated to Abu Bakr Shikaw.

Later, the countries bordering Lake Chad with Benin, which is a member of the Lake Chad Basin Countries Committee, established joint forces to fight armed organizations, and the headquarters of these forces in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena.

Battle of revenge
The border triangle between Niger, Nigeria and Chad on the northern shore of Lake Chad has witnessed successive attacks by armed organizations on the forces of the three countries during the past two years. The most violent was the Boko Haram attack on the Chadian army and its unprecedented losses, which prompted Chadian President Idriss Deby to lead a military operation himself and said that its aim was to completely eliminate the militants and called it "Puma's wrath."

The Chadian President mobilized ground and air forces and sent forces to neighboring Niger so that the group could be cordoned off from several sides. He decided to use the boats in the lake waters, which the militants told their swamps more than his forces used to land battles. And still a week ago he leads the country’s forces in the battle against Boko Haram.