Chad to form elite units to fight rebels; control borders
Chad works to redistribute its army along its borders with other states as part of its counterterrorism efforts.
The African country will then try to
double the number of army troops nationwide in its bid to prevent terrorist
groups from growing and gaining more force.
On September 26, Chad unveiled a
plan to significantly increase the size of the army to address security
challenges and face rebel movements.
Defense Minister, Gen. Daoud Yaya
Ibrahim, told his country's parliament that the army had begun the process of
increasing its personnel from 35,000 at present to 60,000 by the end of 2022.
Elite units
Ibrahim added that the army command
had started the process of increasing the number of army troops by recruiting
and training soldiers and non-commissioned officers.
The goal, he said, is to build elite
units capable of adapting to the asymmetric warfare faced by the Sahel
countries.
He pointed out that the army would seek
more funding in the next budget for defense spending.
Chad is fighting alongside Nigeria,
Cameroon and Niger, as well as the Sahel states, Mali and Burkina Faso, against
terrorists linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS.
The country's army is also fighting
rebels in northern territories where former President Idriss Deby was killed in
April 2021 while inspecting troops fighting rebels based in Libya.
Recently, the head of the ruling
military council in Chad, Mohamed Idriss Deby, suggested reviving the
quadripartite agreement with Libya, Sudan, and Niger by forming a joint
military force.
The proposal will open the door for
the formation of a military force on the border with Libya to prevent the
incursion of rebel groups, as happened in April 2021, which led to the killing
of the late Chadian president.
In 2018, the four countries signed a
security cooperation agreement to combat terrorism and human trafficking.
However the agreement did not
prevent the spread of paramilitary forces in southern Libya and the incursion
of Chadian rebels from the Arab country.
