The killing of President Idriss Deby of Chad has the potential of escalating security challenges for Nigeria and other neighbouring countries, the Nigerian government admitted on Thursday.
To forestall that, the government has decided to beef up security at the country’s borders to stop the flowing in of refugees, Minister of Defence, Maj. -Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd), said at the Presidential Villa, Abuja at the weekly briefing organised by the presidential communication team.
Deby was killed on Tuesday while fighting insurgents in the northern part of the country. Security experts have said that his death has created a vacuum in the country, where the 68-year-old president had served as a rallying point in the fight against religious fundamentalists.
“When we heard of this unfortunate killing of the Chadian President, we knew that problem is bound to be replicated among neigbouring countries and Nigeria will be most hit by his absence,” Magashi said.
“If there is insecurity in Chad, there will be a lot of problems. But thank God, we have a lot of military activities with the Chadian, Niger, Cameroon, we have all that military concern.
” So, in the name of that multinational Joint Task Force, all these countries, including Chad, are contributing soldiers for the operation.
“We hope that very soon, we will find a secure way for the continuation of the activities we are supposed to be doing.
“The problem is now going to be aggravated because we are not sure the direction in which that country is going to face.
“But I assure you that we are mindful of our borders, we are mindful of the development, and politically, the government is putting its head together to see how best they can restore the peace in that country.
“So security-wise, we are beefing up all borders to ensure that refugees do not flow into a country,” he added.
“Even Nigerians, I am sure they would come back; we must prepare for them and allow them to come in and refuse others to come because of the problems it will create.
“The issues of weapons and arms, Chad is the buffer stopping all these infiltrations of weapons and the rest of it.”
“We also have to take care of that and prepare our minds for it. I think we are on top of the situation, all we are praying is that all African countries will find a solution to the problem of Chad, and get on moving as a democratic society as expected by the international organisation the world over.”
