The Nigerian military has reacted to the claims of the Chadian troops, which is part of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) geared towards wiping out Boko Haram from the surface of the earth.
A military source who spoke on condition of anonymity told THISDAY on Sunday that there were indications that the Nigerian military is not happy with the unfair speculations and outright falsehood dished out by Chadian troops.
The source, who is close to the operations of the MNJTF, said Chadian military claimed to have recaptured many border towns but are being frustrated by the refusal of the Nigerian troops to take over control of the ‘liberated territories.’
Meanwhile, investigations have revealed that Nigerian troops are treading cautiously having been deceived several times “by the so-called territorial gains claimed by the Chadian military in most of the border towns”.
The source revealed that most of the towns the Chadian soldiers claimed to have liberated were still controlled by the Boko Haram terrorist group, adding that Nigerian troops met a surprise and fierce resistance from the sect until they finally wrest such towns from the insurgents.
It was gathered that the strategy of the Chadian troops were anchored on cross border raids, and looting purely for commercial, financial and economic gains.
“What do they mean by clearing a place when they are not holding ground? So on what ground are they telling the international community they are holding? They are doing entirely a different thing and have been lying all along. They have not been telling the truth, just that our military wants to be diplomatic in dealing with this issue. Even all those areas they claimed they were holding, is all hoax, they only came to loot and disappear back to their boundary, while claiming they are holding grounds but when our troops come, they meet strong resistance from Boko Haram,” the source said.
Buttressing the above claims, an intelligence source revealed that Chadian troops’ recent claim of recapturing border towns of Damasak, Dikwa and Gamboru Ngala were false, adding that some of the pictures and images being brandished by Chad through the foreign media are propaganda tools showing their military training activities and cross border raids and incidences of looting.
The source who is a senior security officer further hinted that Nigeria had refrained from going public with what it had seen as “bags of lies, falsehood and dangerous deception by the Chadians” for diplomatic and operational reasons.
According to the source, before the current military arrangement that allows the countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) to fortify their contiguous boundaries and deny safe haven to Boko Haram Islamist militants, Nigerian military had viewed the Chadians’ involvement with a suspicious link to the terrorists.
“It’s just that we don’t want to tell the whole world of their lies but honestly they are constituting more problems for us. We have refrained from talking much on this in order not to compound issues for the military. The other time they claimed to have captured Dikwa, only for our troops to get there and found it deserted and yet encountered strong Boko Haram resistance. Like I told you, how can they say they are holding a place when they are not on ground? Do you know that when they claimed they have liberated Dikwa, but surprisingly, our soldiers got there and ran into ambush with the terrorists entrenched? This alerted us that they were not even there at all or rather cooperating with the terrorists. All they do is to come, loot and go back to their country. You know that most of these towns are along the border, so all they do is to raid the towns, shoot one or two Boko Haram, cart away things and run back to their country and not that they are holding any ground. Some of those pictures they are showing you even in some foreign media are training pictures and those of their raids. They have never been able to hold any ground including Gamboru Ngala. How many times have they claimed to have recaptured the place, about four times, but they are all lies,” the source said.
Another senior military officer also noted that the reason for the reluctance of the Nigerian military to rush towards any border town claimed to have been recaptured is to first completely secure the major towns that the soldiers captured and finish mopping up operations and effective occupation before proceeding to other areas.
The officer revealed that leaving their flanks open in an attempt to take over other territory claimed to have been liberated by a suspicious ally had led to major attacks by Boko Haram to reclaim the newly liberated areas or ambushed soldiers on their way to the new territory.
“So this is why we have to take caution before rushing to the areas claimed to have been liberated by Chad, and if at all their claim is right, why are they not holding the ground until we are ready to take over?” he said.
The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) which comprise of Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria was recently formed to wipe out Boko Haram from the troubled North-Eastern part of Nigeria and some neigbouring countries.
However, the MNJTF have really clamp down on Boko Haram, yetsterday the Islamist militants also suffered heavy casualties after Two Chadian army helicopters bombed the positions of dozens of the sect members near a village on the border with Niger.
![Aleppo has been badly damaged with thousands of homes completely destroyed due to the war in Syria [Reuters]](http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2015/5/2/2b0c54935dac4407a5a7d6812144b583_18.jpg "Dozens killed in US-led air strikes in northern Syria")
