Sahel Edition

Sahel: Chad acquires military vehicles and security gear from the UAEF

Posted On 6 August 2023

Number of times this article was read : 1944

The United Arab Emirates has sent military vehicles and other security gear to Chad in support of anti-“terrorism” efforts and border rotection, the oil-rich Gulf state said on Sunday.  Chad is a neighbour of Niger, where a coup late last month toppled one of the last pro-Western leaders in the jihadist-plagued Sahel region.

The UAE’s official news agency WAM included a photo of several desert-coloured armoured vehicles, with the Emirati and Chadian flags draped over two of them. Emirati firm NIMR manufactures the vehicles.

“The UAE has sent a shipment of military vehicles and security equipment to the Republic of Chad, to support its capabilities in combatting terrorism and enhancing border protection,” WAM said, without providing details on the equipment. WAM said the two countries had signed a military cooperation agreement in June during a visit by Chad’s president, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who has led the country since his father Idriss Deby Itno died from wounds battling rebels more than two years ago. The military cooperation pact was one of several bilateral agreements signed between the two countries, WAM said.

N’Djamena confirmed that it had “received armoured vehicles in the framework of military cooperation between Chad and the Emirates”. “This equipment allows us to strengthen our defence forces in the framework of the struggle against terrorism,” Chad’s Defence Minister Daoud Yaya Brahim told AFP.

The UAE, which has been developing its own defence industry, has also been increasing its engagement with African nations. Military chiefs of the West African bloc ECOWAS have agreed on a plan for a possible intervention in response to the July 26 coup which toppled Niger’s president Mohamed Bazoum.

Chad is not an ECOWAS member but a Chadian government spokesman told AFP on July 30 that Deby had gone to Niger “to see what he could bring to solving the crisis.”

AFP

More on the Sahel

West Africa: Jihadist Attacks Intensify in Northern Benin Amid Cross-Border Insurgency Pressure$

Jihadist attacks in northern Benin have intensified in recent weeks, with militants linked to JNIM claiming a deadly assault on a military position near the Niger border and carrying out additional raids on security posts along the country’s volatile frontiers with Burkina Faso and Nigeria. The violence underscores how northern Benin has become part of a wider cross-border insurgency spilling south from the central Sahel, even as authorities bolster Operation Mirador and try to prevent armed groups from entrenching themselves on Beninese soil.

Desert Locusts Stir Fresh Worries in North-West Africa$

Small desert locust swarms recently detected along the western Sahara corridor have prompted stepped-up monitoring across parts of North and West Africa, where shifting rainfall can quickly turn quiet desert areas into launchpads for wider infestations.

Mali Army, Russian Allies Accused of Executing Civilians Near Mauritania Border$

Seven Malian refugees traveling from Mauritania were allegedly executed by Malian soldiers and Russian Africa Corps personnel near Ahl El Kory, close to the Mauritanian border, after their vehicles were stopped on March 6. Local sources say the unarmed Fulani civilians were shot or had their throats cut, while other passengers were beaten, questioned as suspected jihadists, then released.