Chad Repels Boko Haram Coup Charge with 19 Killed

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Gunfire Outside Presidential Palace in Chad on Day French Army Departed

By Raisina Correspondent

New Delhi, January 9: Ninteen people were killed in a gun battle outside the presidential palace in N’Djamena in Chad. Reports claimed that the coup attempt launched by Boko Haram rebels were neutralised by the Chad’s military forces.

Local reports said that 18 militants were among those who were killed in the gunfire outside the presidential palace. AFP in a news update said that “19 people died in fighting between security forces and gunmen who launched an assault on Chad’s presidential palace on Wednesday”.

The Chad government functionaries released at least two videos after the alleged Boko Haram militants were neutralised outside the presidential palace. The Chad Foreign Affairs Minister and government spokesperson Abderaman Koulamallah went live on his Facebook page as he gave details of the encounter with a gun in his side pocket hanging while he stood with a group of military personnel. “Everything will be calm now and under control,” he said. Video footages showed killed attackers outside the palace.

Chad has been witnessing a long-drawn-out militancy from Boko Haram. The coup attempt was allegedly staged on a day a batch of the French army left Chad. Sprinter in an update said: “An A330 plane took off from N’Djamena airport to France. On board were eight tons of cargo and 70 French soldiers.”

Sprinter compared exit of the French army personnel with the hurried withdrawal of the US military personnel from Afghanistan which hastened the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

African News Feed said in a post on X that the “attack on the presidential palace in N’Djamena took place after Marshal (Mahamat) Déby (Itno) reiterated his ultimatum to the French army to leave his territory no later than January 31, 2025”. It also said that the Chinese foreign affairs minister Wang Yi will be arriving in N’Djamena.

There has been a war of words going on between the Chad leadership and French politicians over the withdrawal of the army of France from the African nation which has seen decades of violence.

France24 in a report quoted a security source, saying that “attackers were members of the Boko Haram jihadist group”. “The Chadian forces are fighting the Boko Haram in the western Lake Chad region that borders Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger,” added the report.

The father of the incumbent president Idriss Déby Itno had also led the military of Chad against the Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region. “A seasoned field commander, Idriss Déby governed Chad for 30 years before being killed in combat by rebels in 2021. His son, then a general, assumed power,” said Africa News in a report.

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