The Nigerian Army has signed an agreement with Chadian Army aimed at eradicating the Boko Haram group in the North-eastern part of Nigeria
The memorandum of understanding was signed at a meeting held in Abuja on Friday between Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh and his Chadian counterpart, Major-General Ibrahim Seid Mahamat, to iron out the modalities for the counter terrorism operations along the Nigeria-Chad border.
Air Marshall Badeh said that the agreement would eradicate barriers that had worked against previous efforts to jointly fight the insurgents.
Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, put the total number of troops involved in the joint operations between federal troops and the Chadian forces at 7,500 soldiers.
The CDS said the military had deployed 5,000 soldiers to work with a total of between 2,000 to 2,500 forces in the coordinated action against the Boko Haram.
He added that the 5,000 soldiers were deployed specifically to work with the Chadians in addition to all Nigerian forces available to fight the insurgents.
The CDS said the Chadian troops had commenced operation from Gamboru Ngala while Nigerian troops were operating from the South with an arrangement to meet somewhere at the centre.
Badeh and his Chadian counterpart signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the ongoing allied operation against the Boko Haram after six hours of a closed-door meeting of senior military and security personnel from the two countries.
The CDS, who was silent on the number of troops being contributed by Cameroon to the joint operation, also declined to speak on the casualty figure suffered by the Cameroonians in the Boko Haram attack on Fotokol, on Wednesday.
He said, “I want you to know that Chadian Forces in Nigerian territory are mostly in the border town of Fotokol and Gamboru Ngala on the basis of the bilateral agreement we signed with them.
“We have been working together since. They came here now to clear some grey areas; that is what we have done. We have just met as an addendum to the MoU that we signed on the January 18".
“I do not want to comment on how many Cameroonian soldiers that were killed on that side; let them comment on it themselves".
The Chadian army recently pulled out of the regional joint forces before the insurgents took over the military base in Baga, Borno state last month.
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