Chadian troops make up a sizeable part of the African Union's contingent in CAR

3 April 2014 BBC Africa

Chad is to pull its peacekeepers from an African Union mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) in protest at claims that they aided rebels.

A statement from the Chadian foreign ministry said its troops had been criticised despite their sacrifices.

Chad has contributed roughly 850 soldiers to a 6,000-strong contingent.

Its forces have been accused of siding with Muslim rebels whose ousting of the CAR government last year was followed by a wave of religious violence.

The rebels, who call themselves Seleka, seized power last March. Their leader stepped down in January amid spiralling attacks and counter-attacks between groups claiming to represent different faiths.

Recently, thousands of Muslims, a minority in CAR, have been fleeing to neighbouring Chad and Cameroon after being targeted by Christian militias.

The Chadian statement said its forces had been the victims of "a gratuitous and malicious campaign" to blame them for "all the suffering in CAR".

The ousted president of CAR, Francois Bozize, told the BBC last year that Chadian troops had helped drive him from office - a claim that Chad has denied.

Last weekend, Chadian forces were blamed for the deaths of 24 people in CAR's capital, Bangui. The troops, however, said they were responding to an attack.

The Chadian statement on Thursday said its forces would remain in CAR while the details of the withdrawal were worked out.

The African Union contingent in the country is backed up by some 2,000 French troops.

Analysis Thomas Fessy Thomas Fessy West Africa correspondent

Aware of Chad's power to destabilise CAR, some diplomats would argue that it was better to keep the neighbour on board and a part of the UN mission.

Others would say a UN mission without Chadian troops would be ideal, but diplomatically impossible to bring about.

The most pragmatic would simply argue that at a time when it is proving extremely difficult to cobble together a UN force of 12,000, losing more than 800 troops from the existing mission is not what is needed.

12 March 2014 defenceWeb (Reuters)

Shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles have been trafficked out of Libya to Chad, Mali, Tunisia, Lebanon and likely Central African Republic, with attempts made to send them to Syrian opposition groups, according to a U.N. report on Tuesday.

An independent panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions on Libya, that include an arms embargo imposed at the start of the 2011 uprising that ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi, reported that the weapons, known as MANPADs, that were found in Mali and Tunisia "were clearly part of terrorist groups' arsenals."

"Despite efforts by Libya and other countries to account for and secure MANPADs in Libya, Panel sources state that thousands of MANPADs were still available in arsenals controlled by a wide array of non-state actors with tenuous or non-existent links to Libyan national authorities," the experts said in their final report to the U.N. Security Council.

"To date the Panel has documented transfers of Libyan MANPADs and other short range surface to air missiles in ... Chad, Mali, Tunisia, Lebanon and potentially Central African Republic (the latter case still being under investigation)," the experts said.

The fragile Libyan government is struggling to rein in militias that helped oust Gaddafi and now defy state authority. It has little control over its borders and while trying to rebuild its army, analysts say it is not yet a match for battle-hardened militias who ousted Gaddafi in eight-months.

"Over the past three years, Libya has become a primary source of illicit weapons," according to the U.N. report.

The U.N. experts said Libya has been a key source of arms for Syria opposition groups due to "popular sympathies for the Syrian opposition, large available stockpiles of weapons, the lack of law enforcement and a new generation of domestic arms dealers who appeared during the Libyan uprising."

"Sources indicated to the Panel that the Syrian Arab Republic is also becoming a source of onward proliferation itself, including to Iraq and Lebanon," according to the report, which covers the past year.

The panel said that weapons found aboard a ship, the Letfallah II, when it was seized by Lebanese authorities in 2012 "proved there had been attempts to transfer MANPADs to the Syrian opposition from Libya."

FACEBOOK TRADE

Under the arms embargo the Libyan government must notify the U.N. Security Council Libya sanctions committee of any weapons purchases it intends to make.

"The Panel has reason to believe that some transfers of arms and ammunition have taken place since the end of the revolution in violation of the arms embargo," the experts said. "Those transfers undermine the effort of the Libyan authorities to build an accountable and transparent procurement process."

Libya's U.N. envoy Ibrahim Dabbashi said on Monday that "any request for approval for exporting weapons to Libya that is not done via the Libyan mission at the U.N. or with the knowledge of this mission would be considered a request from a party that does not belong to the Libyan government."

A year ago the U.N. Security Council made it easier for Libya to obtain non-lethal equipment such as bulletproof vests and armored cars but expressed concern at the spread of weapons from the country to nearby states.

The U.N. experts expressed concern about arms flowing into the civilian market in Libya in violation of the arm embargo. The report found that a number of shops openly sell small arms and that weapons on display were brand new.

"Retailers explained that most of the materiel was procured for Turkey because of low prices," said the experts, adding that Turkey was investigating the claims. "New guns are also advertised on Facebook pages dedicated to trade between private individuals."

Facebook Inc and its photo sharing subsidiary, Instagram, announced last week that they will delete posts offering to buy or sell guns without background checks.

"Handguns and related ammunition are still the weapon of choice," according to the report. "Importing such materiel is therefore a lucrative business and seizures bound for Libya made in 2013 clearly reflect that trend."

The full Panel of Experts report can be seen here

December 6, 2013: Strategy Page

Boko Haram may have been forced into the countryside, but they have not lost their ability to attack. Because of the growing number of soldiers, police and local volunteers in the northeast Boko Haram has adapted and they now attack whoever they can, which means most of their victims are civilians and Moslems. This indicates that Boko Haram now considers most of the civilian population hostile to them. The Islamic terrorists do try and concentrate their attacks against Christians and civilians known to support the volunteer anti-terrorist militias, but generally any civilian will do once the Boko Haram gunmen are out and about. In addition to raids on towns and villages, Boko Haram also likes to set up false military roadblocks (using uniforms stolen from living or dead soldiers and police) and murder any civilians who come along. Sometimes Moslems are spared, but usually everyone dies and their possessions, especially vehicles, are stolen. 

So far this year some 900 Christians have been killed in Nigeria by Moslems. Most of these dead are in the northeast but over a third have died in Central Nigeria where Moslem nomads have been pushing south for decades and have been raiding the largely Christian natives in order to obtain access to more water and grazing land. Thus last month 34 Christians were killed in the northeast while over 40 died in Central Nigeria (Plateau state). The government has promised increased security around Christmas, because Islamic terrorists like to make large attacks on Christian holidays. One reason there has not been more anti-Moslem attacks in the Christian south is because nearly all Moslem religious leaders have condemned Boko Haram, often accusing them of not being Moslems but just deranged killers. These denunciations are convincing to most Christians, who also note that most Boko Haram victims in the Moslem north are Moslem and that many Moslems up there have joined anti-Boko Haram militias. A growing number of Christians are fleeing the north, especially if they still have family down south.

One of the disadvantages of driving Boko Haram out of the cities is that the Islamic terrorists can now set up camps across the borders in Cameroon. Chad and Niger. These three nations have far less numerous security forces and Boko Haram tends to behave on the other side of the border so as to avoid antagonizing the local tribes and security forces. So it’s up to Nigeria to greatly improve surveillance on its side of the border and still leaves a lot of the thinly populated border area unwatched most of the time. There are additional problems with the fact that over 70,000 Nigerian civilians have fled to these two countries to escape the Boko Haram violence. The government is discussing getting some help with this from the United States in for form of American UAVs.

Piracy off the coast continues to be a problem as some of the pirates now go after locals in addition to the better guarded foreign ships and oil company service boats. Robbing the locals won’t make you rich but it’s easier and safer than the foreign owned ships. The navy has responded with more patrol boats and naval bases on the coast and more patrols and quicker reaction to pirate attacks. But so far there are more pirates entering the business than are being taken out by the navy and police.

December 3, 2013: In the northeast (Maiduguri) the curfew was reduced to 11 hours so people could continue their lives. Cell phone networks were also turned back on after having been shut down since May. This was seen as necessary to make it more difficult for Boko Haram raiding parties to move about undetected. Most people in the area are hostile to Boko Haram (although they agree with the Islamic terrorists’ hostility to corrupt and ineffective government).

December 1, 2013: In the northeast (Maiduguri) Boko Haram attacked the air force facility at the main airport outside the city. Over twenty air force personnel were killed and five helicopters and aircraft destroyed. The attackers lost over twenty men. The air force said that three of the “damaged” aircraft were not in service anyway. Flight operations at the airport were halted for a few hours and a 24 hour curfew was declared in Maiduguri because the attack on the airport was just one of many attacks around the city by up to 300 Boko Haram men.

November 29, 2013: In the northeast (Borno state) Boko Haram attacked a rural village, killed 17 people and burned down dozens of buildings and vehicles. Two of the attackers were killed by a pro-government militia.

November 28, 2013: In the northeast (Borno state) the air force bombed a Boko Haram camp in a forest and killed over a dozen of the Islamic terrorists.

November 26, 2013: Tribal violence continues in central Nigeria (Plateau State) as Moslem gunmen attacked four villages killing at least 37 people and destroying much property. Most of the victims were Berom, a tribe that has been in the area for centuries. The governor of Plateau state is Beron. Moslem nomadic Fulani tribesmen have been fighting with Christian and pagan farmers outside the city of Jos for years. The violence has gotten worse now and there have been over a thousand casualties so far this year. Boko Haram has recently claimed involvement, but that appears to be marginal. The Fulani have long claimed that the government was sending Christian police to persecute them because of their religion (not because they were constantly attacking Christian farmers). The settled (farming) tribes have been there a long time and in the last few decades more Fulani have come south looking for pasturage and water for their herds and have increasingly used force to get what they want.

14 October 2013 by Guy Martin - defenceWeb

Chad’s Air Force will soon receive two new C-27J Spartan medium transport aircraft from Alenia Aermacchi, with the aircraft undergoing final assembly at the company’s site in Italy.

The first C-27J for the Force Aerienne Tchadienne (Chad Air Force) is mostly complete, having had its engines installed ahead of a provisional mid-December delivery, and is undergoing avionics and mission systems installation. The fuselage of the second aircraft will shortly arrive at Alenia’s Caselle site in Turin, where the C-27J final assembly line is located.

Training of Chadian flight crew and technicians is currently underway in preparation for delivery of the aircraft later this year.

The Chad Air Force has a small transport fleet, comprising of a couple of Antonov An-26s (which entered service in 1994) and a single Lockheed Martin C-130 (which entered service in 1989). It is possible that the An-26s will be replaced by the C-27Js.

Chad began discussing the possible purchase of Spartans some years ago, with a leaked 2009 US diplomatic cable discussing the possibility of Chad buying C-130Js or C-27Js. “Purchasing C-27Js would be more economical for the GOC [Government of Chad] than buying C-130Js and might be no more expensive than buying refitted C-130Hs,” the cable read. “The C-27Js can land at many more airports in Chad than the bigger C-130s, either Js or Hs, thus complementing USG [US Government] efforts to make the Chadian military capable of combating terrorism in Chad's vast, remote, under-populated, and under-governed northern Saharan and Sahelian regions.”

Morocco is the only other C-27J operator in Africa, having bought four Spartans in October 2008. The first was delivered in July 2010. Morocco selected the C-27J for its ability to operate without under extreme environmental conditions, and without deployed ground support.

Alenia Aermacchi is gearing up to deliver another two C-27Js to Australia, as part of its May 2012 order for ten, and the final three of 21 for the US Air Force, which will place them in storage after the 2012 decision to stop flying the type.

The C-27J has been selected by more than ten countries, including Australia, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, the United States, Lithuania, Romania, Morocco, Slovakia, Mexico and Chad and has flown missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The aircraft has a payload capacity of 11.5 tons and can carry 60 troops or 36 litters with six attendants.

The Spartan’s closest competitor, the Airbus Military CN235/C295, has also been pushing for African sales, and has gained orders in Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt and Ghana.

21 June 2013 defenceWeb (Reuters)

Sitting on cement blocks, surrounded by shisha pipes and machine guns, a dozen or so tribesmen guard a makeshift checkpoint outside the main city in Libya's desert south.

They are there to guard against smugglers and criminals, who have multiplied since Muammar Gaddafi's downfall in the 2011 war. They also say they are ready to battle Islamist militants that Libya's neighbors and Western nations fear are crossing the North African country's porous borders.

"If I hear al Qaeda is here, I will kill them. We know what happened in Mali and we won't allow it here, even if we only have rifles," Mohammed Wardi, 25, said as a war movie blasted from an old television nearby. "We are here to protect Libya."

A French-led military campaign this year broke Islamists' hold over the northern two-thirds of Mali, killing hundreds of al Qaeda-linked fighters and pushing others into neighboring states like Niger and eventually Libya, security officials say, Reuters reports.

The men with Wardi are from the Tibu tribe, a black African ethnic group that also lives in Chad and Niger, which along with ill-trained tribal militias of former rebel fighters and a poorly-equipped national army are trying to maintain security in Libya's southern desert hinterlands.

The long-neglected region, with borders stretching more than 2,000 kms and home to major oil fields, has grown more lawless as the country's new rulers - hundreds of miles away in Tripoli - struggle to impose order on a country awash with weapons.

The south has seen rising violence, weapons and drug trafficking and an influx of illegal immigrants, leading the national assembly to declare the region a military zone, a decree the weak government has little power to enforce.

"The south is dying and the government is ignoring us. Crime is rampant, there are tribal animosities, smuggling and we are worried that what is happening in Mali will spread here," said a local government official, who declined to be identified.

"We are free of Gaddafi but we are prisoners to chaos."

IN NEED OF WEAPONS AND BINOCULARS

Even under Gaddafi, the south was poorly patrolled and smugglers have long used the area - a crossroads of routes to Chad, Niger and Algeria - for trafficking drugs, contraband cigarettes and people to Europe.

But now the traffickers, who also specialize in weapons, fuel, stolen vehicles and subsidized food, are as well-armed as the security forces tasked with catching them.

"We have patrol planes, convoys of cars but the area is very big," said a senior army source at the base for the south's military governor. "Sometimes phones don't work well and we need better equipment - planes, cars, weapons even binoculars."

Adding to the lack of equipment, the militias the state relies on - especially in the harsh desert terrain its soldiers do not know - are rife with long-standing grievances.

During his 42-year iron-fisted rule, Gaddafi often played off one tribe or clan against the other and tensions persist. Last year fighting between Tibu, oasis farmers by tradition, and Arab militias in Sabha and Kufra killed more than 150 people.

Skirmishes still erupt over control of smuggling routes, sometimes by the groups supposed to be catching the culprits.

In towns such as Sabha and Obari, a remote outpost 200 kms away, police struggle to rein in crime, compounded by unemployment, drug abuse and plentiful weapons.

Military convoys and bases have been attacked. Last month, Sabha airport was briefly shutdown by angry Tibu protesting against the disappearance of a militia leader.

The main prison for the southwest is in Sabha but it holds just 95 criminals. It has been attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and prisoners broke free earlier this year.

"Most of the prisoners came back as they were too afraid to be out on the streets," Mohammed Ali Azbari, who manages the former rebel fighters now acting as prison guards, said.

"We now have the army outside the prison."

At Sabha hospital, doctors tell of how patients have been shot inside the grounds by angry rival tribesmen seeking revenge. Bullet holes are still visible on the floor.

ISLAMIST THREAT

Restoring order in the south is important to the stability of the wider region, where Islamist influence is spreading after the defeat of the insurgents in Mali.

A string of attacks in Niger including on a French-run uranium mine have shown how rebels have taken advantage of a security vacuum since the Mali conflict.

Security officials say lawless southern Libya has become the latest haven for Islamist groups. Paris has put the blame firmly on these groups for attacking its embassy in Tripoli in April.

Libyan officials insist Islamists have not found shelter in their deserts.

"There are no al Qaeda groups here. We can say that and we know," said Mahmoud Abdelkareem, an official from Obari council involved in security matters for the south. "Our men in the desert would find them easily and this has not happened."

But Western nations are worried. Earlier this month NATO, which played a major role in toppling Gaddafi, said it would send experts to Libya to see how it can improve security.

"We can't deny some activities are going on. The fact that the area is not properly secured encourages smuggling, perhaps even training camps," said one Libyan security official from the town of Ghadames, on the border with Algeria.

Residents in Sabha tell of hearing stories of weapons being sold across the border and areas briefly shutdown by militias.

"There are people who went to fight in Mali and others have come from there. But they are keeping a low profile, most likely near the borders," said the first local government official.

"Any cooperation however between a tribal group here and them is likely to be financial rather than ideological."

Gaddafi's overthrow flooded the Sahara with pillaged weapons and ammunition, which Tripoli has failed to clamp down on.

"Libya is an open air arms market; it will remain a source of weaponry for 10 years," an Algerian security analyst said.

Security sources say veteran al Qaeda commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar acquired arms in southern Libya and his fighters used it as a transit route before a mass hostage-taking at a gas plant in Algeria in January in which dozens were killed.

Many fear Libya's oil facilities, also guarded by former rebels, may face a similar threat.

"The situation in the south has worsened dangerously fast," Muftah Bukhalil, head of the intelligence office in Kufra, said.

"You can just about expect anything these days."

#Mali: Vives tensions entre les forces tchadiennes et les rebelles de #MNLA à #Kidal - #Chad #Tchad #Défense #Defence http://t.co/hJYbcMC5lw

RP Defense (@RPDefense)April 16, 2013