Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Abuja (Agenzia Fides) - More than 3,000 refugees fleeing the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram have been welcomed in Chad. This was announced by the Prime Minister of Chad, Kalzeubé Pahimi Deubet, according to whom even 500 Chadians have returned to the Country because of the violence of the extremist Nigerians.
According to information gathered by Agenzia Fides, the crisis in the north-east of Nigeria is increasingly spreading to neighboring States, even for the threats made in a video, attributed to the leader of Boko Haram, Aboubakar Shekau, to the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya. In the video, a man who looks like the leader of the Islamist sect, has threatened to increase violence in Cameroon if the country does not abolish the Constitution and embraces Islam. In recent months, the military of Cameroon have rejected several offensives launched on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. The conquest of the base of the so-called Multinational Task Force (formed by soldiers of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon) in Baga on the Nigerian banks of Lake Chad, now offers Boko Haram a strategic location from which to launch attacks not only against Maiduguri (the capital of the Nigerian State of Borno) but also against Niger, Chad and Cameroon. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 08/01/2015)
