Soldiers from Chad and neighbouring Niger have claimed their first victories against Boko Haram in Nigeria after opening a new northern front.
Officials said that the troops retook the town of Damasak, which had been under Boko Haram control since November, as well as the area around Malam Fatouri. Both towns are close to the border in an area in which President Jonathan of Nigeria said that the Islamists had threatened his country’s territorial integrity.
Yesterday’s assault came 24 hours after Boko Haram released an audio message claiming allegiance to the Islamic State militants who have captured swathes of Syria and Iraq.
“We announce our allegiance to the caliph and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease,” a voice, purportedly that of Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, said in an clip posted on Twitter.
Chad launched assaults on Nigeria’s eastern border last month, fighting with troops from Cameroon, but this was the first attack from the north. Residents in Diffa, where the force assembled, said that thousands of soldiers and hundreds of vehicles were involved.
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Up to 13,000 people are thought to have been killed by Boko Haram since 2009 in a brutal campaign that has included attacks on school assemblies, markets and churches.
Nicholas Rasmussen, the head of America’s national counterterrorism centre, said that there was “increased intercommunication between Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in the northwestern part of Africa” at a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee last month.
“[Islamic State] has reached out and developed affiliated relationships, endorsement-like relationships with groups outside of Iraq and Syria, including in north Africa,” he said.
The US has blocked the sales of heavy weapons to Nigeria because of fears over the army’s human rights record. Nigeria cancelled a joint training exercise in protest but last week a minister warned that Boko Haram would try to attack the West.