Hundreds flee fearing Boko Haram after Chad army leaves Nigeria

Chad has ended a months-long mission fighting Boko Haram in neighbouring Nigeria and withdrawn its 1,200-strong force across their common border, an army spokesman told AFP on Saturday.

“It’s our troops who went to aid Nigerian soldiers months ago returning home. They have finished their mission,” spokesman Colonel Azem Bermandoa told AFP. “None of our soldiers remains in Nigeria,” he added.

He did not specify if they might be replaced following Friday’s pull-out which saw them “return to their sector at Lake Chad.”

However, Chad’s general chief of staff General Tahir Erda Tahiro said that if countries in the region which have contributed to a multinational anti-jihadist force were in agreement, more troops would likely be sent in amid local people’s fears of a security vacuum.

The Chad troops, brought out in pickup trucks and tank transporters, crossed the bridge back to their home capital of N’Djamena via the Cameroon border town of Kousseri under the curious gaze of locals, an AFP reporter said.