While much of the world’s media and human-rights groups are fixated on the Israel versus Hamas-Hezbollah conflict, jihadist terrorists are ravaging Africa sometimes in ways that eerily mirror the assault on the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023.
Chad is a landlocked country that shares borders with Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Libya, Nigeria and Niger, all of which struggle with jihadist insurgencies such as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Boko Haram and other terrorist groups. Chad is an important ally for French and U.S. forces who are fighting jihadists in the Sahel, a region that has become the epicenter of global jihadist terrorism.
According to the U.S. State Department, Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists have killed many civilians and Chadian soldiers. The Africa Center of Strategic Studies reports that Chad’s security situation took a drastic turn last year when on March 23, 2023, Boko Haram attacked Chadian troops in Bohoma and left 98 Chadian soldiers dead and dozens more wounded. On Oct. 26-27 of this year, around 40 of Chad’s soldiers were killed in an attack by Boko Haram terrorists on a military base in Chad’s Lake Region. These mounting attacks pose an increased risk to the stability of Chad and the wider region.
Boko Haram has existed in various forms in Nigeria since the late 1990s. Like Hamas, Boko Haram seeks the implementation of Islamic law (Sharia). The terror group has carried out many assassinations and massacres. According to the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Boko Haram has killed more than 150,000 people (mostly Christians) in Nigeria since 2009.
According to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), since 2014, Boko Haram has conducted near-daily attacks against Christians, security and police forces, the media, schools, politicians and Muslims perceived as collaborators.
The world was shocked when in April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in Borno State, Nigeria. International condemnation immediately followed. U.S. first lady Michelle Obama responded personally with her #bringbackourgirls social-media campaign (a campaign which, sadly, she abandoned shortly afterward.) Today, according to the NCTC, “Boko Haram remains resilient, conducting attacks in neighboring Cameroon, Chad, Niger, as well as Nigeria, emphasizing the threat it poses to Western and regional interests.”
Jihad activities are spreading across Africa’s Central Sahel. According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the epicenters of violence and humanitarian disaster are in the Liptako-Gourma and Lake Chad Basin subregions of Central Sahel spreading across the borderlands of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. According to a CFR report:
“The persistent and growing strength of violent extremist organizations in the Sahel … poses significant security and financial risks to the United States and Europe. The continuing collapse of international counterterrorism support, as well as weakening leadership in regional efforts, has created a vacuum in which violent extremism can expand. Organizations including Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), Islamic State in the West African Province (ISWAP), and others have already taken advantage of that vacuum, using countries in the region as platforms to launch indiscriminate attacks on government forces and civilians alike … .”
In the context of the escalating Boko Haram and ISWAP jihad in Chad, the security of Christian communities is increasingly threatened, reports Open Doors, an international human-rights organization:
“These jihadist groups are known for targeting religious minorities, including Christians, in their quest to establish an Islamic State.
“Christian women are subject to sexual violence by Islamic militants…There have been reports of Christian women being kidnapped and forced into marriage across parts of the nation where Boko Haram militia have wreaked havoc. … particularly in rural areas and in internally displaced people’s camps.
“Christian men and boys in Chad are most vulnerable to persecution from Islamic militant groups. Some have reportedly been abducted, forced to convert to Islam and be recruited to join the ranks of jihadist groups to serve as fighters.”
Islam first came to Chad in the 11th century but did not become a national religion until the 16th and 17th centuries, when the country became an established route for the Muslim slave trade.
Although Chad is a secular republic, today Islam is the majority religion (56% of the population) and pervades the whole of society. This causes some Chadians to show hostility and intolerance towards Christians, whom they regard as “infidels” (kafirs), reports the Open Doors. There are more than 6 million Christians in the country (35% of the whole population).
As a result of the violence of sub-Saharan Africa’s terrorist groups, 16,200,000 Christians have been forcibly displaced. “Millions of Christians are displaced, here in Nigeria,” said Pastor Barnabas. “Millions of Christians are displaced in Africa. The news doesn’t care about it; politicians don’t talk about it; governments don’t talk about it; global politics don’t talk about it. Nobody talks about it.”
As Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch, told JNS:
“Jihad groups in several countries in Africa confront and defeat government military forces on a regular basis. This raises several questions that no one seems able or willing to answer: Who is funding these groups? Who is arming and enabling them to the extent that they are more powerful than the forces of sovereign states? What powerful and monied entities are supporting the advance of jihad in Africa?”
We would add: “How are these murderous jihad attacks on Africans different than what Hamas did to the Jews of Israel, and why are journalists and commentators not making the connections?”
