TheCable

On Sunday, pictures emerged of President Idriss Déby of Chad together with soldiers of the country after an operation against Boko Haram insurgents.

The operation, which took place on Saturday in the Goje-Chadian area of Sambisa forest, a stronghold of Boko Haram, led to the capture of an arms store believed to be the largest owned by the insurgents.

But guess what? The offensive happened five years after the Chadian president accused Nigerian troops of not coming forth in the war against Boko Haram.

He told the New York Times in 2015 that the Nigerian military was defaulting in the war, forcing Chadian soldiers to operate within Nigerian territory.

A former chief of the Chadian army, Déby had lamented that his soldiers were stuck in Damasak, a town in Borno state, while waiting for Nigerian troops to take over the onslaught against the insurgents in the area.

“We want the Nigerians to come and occupy, so we can advance,” Déby was quoted as saying.

“We’re wasting time, for the benefit of Boko Haram. We can’t go any further in Nigeria. We’re not an army of occupation.”

The latest operation by the Chadian troops was targeted at eliminating Boko Haram insurgents in areas around the border with Nigeria.

It comes after the country withdrew more than 1,200 of its troops involved in the multinational joint task force operation against the insurgents.

Although the Nigerian military and the federal government say the war against Boko Haram has been largely successful, recent reports suggest the insurgents are operating with sophisticated weapons and defiant.