Chad’s military says it has carried out airstrikes against suspected Boko Haram locations in Nigeria in response to two suicide bomb attack by the Islamist sect on the country’s capital N’Djamena, on Monday.
The Nigerian military, however, said no such thing happened on its territory. “The territory of Nigeria has not been violated,” it said in a statement, saying the targets identified were probably in Niger.
The attacks on the police headquarters and a police academy in N’Djamena were the first in the city. It killed 20 people and injured 100 others.
Although Boko Haram has not claimed responsibility for the attack, the use of veiled women for suicide attacks has been done by the group in Nigeria, severally. Also, it had in the past vowed to attack Chad because of its military support for Nigeria in the fight against insurgency.
However, Chad will not be cowed into stopping its support for its neighbour, as it sees the threat posed by Boko Haram as a regional one. The country’s military says it will continue its “merciless” pursuit of the militants “so that no drop of Chadian blood spilt goes unpunished”.
As part of actions against Monday’s attack, the central African nation where majority of its population are Muslims, banned the wearing of the full-face veil.
Several attacks have been carried out in Nigeria by veiled women, who are able to carry bombs into places, undetected. However, a ban on the veil, worn for religious purposes, is highly unlikely in the country where religious issues are addressed carefully due to the volatile nature of the North where majority are Muslims.
