News at N'Djamena - Chad said Thursday
its warplanes bombed Boko Haram positions in neighbouring Nigeria to
avenge twin suicide bombings in the capital this week blamed on the
jihadists.
The government also Wednesday announced it was banning the burqa
nationwide in a security clampdown following Monday's attacks in
N'Djamena that left 33 people dead and more than 100 wounded.
Chad's military vowed it would continue its "merciless" pursuit of the
Islamist insurgents "so that no drop of spilt Chadian blood goes
unpunished".
"In response to the cowardly and barbaric acts perpetrated by Boko Haram
terrorists... the armed forces carried out reprisal air strikes on the
terrorists' positions in Nigerian territory on Wednesday," the military
said in a statement.
Six Boko Haram bases were destroyed in the air raids, which caused
"considerable human and material losses", it said, without giving
further details.
Monday's attacks on the police headquarters and a police academy in
N'Djamena were the first in the capital of the central African country,
which has taken a lead role in a regional offensive against the
Nigeria-based Boko Haram.
No group has claimed responsibility but Chad and its allies immediately
blamed the insurgents, who have carried out a series of bloody attacks
in border areas of countries that share a frontier with northeastern
Nigeria.
- 'Seize and burn burqas' -
Chad also Wednesday banned the full-face Muslim veil and ordered security forces to seize burqas from markets and burn them.
"Wearing the burqa must stop immediately from today, not only in public
places and schools but throughout the whole of the country," Prime
Minister Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet told religious leaders the day before
the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Any type of clothing that leaves only the eyes visible is a form of
"camouflage" and is now banned, he added, asking religious leaders to
spread the message in mosques, churches and other holy places.
Deubet said security forces in the Muslim majority country had been
instructed to "go into the markets and to seize all the burqas on sale
and burn them".
Anyone found wearing a burqa will be "arrested, tried and sentenced in summary proceedings", he added.
Boko Haram has used female suicide bombers to launch attacks in the past by hiding explosive devices under their clothes.
Chad's government on Tuesday declared three days of national mourning for victims of the blasts.
President Idriss Deby said he was "not surprised" Chad has been targeted
because of the leading role it is playing in the regional effort to
crush Boko Haram fighters.
- 'Don't drop your guard' -
"I have continually told the government to not drop its guard," he said,
urging the international community to back Chad and its neighbours in
their campaign.
Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Benin and Cameroon agreed last week to set up a
regional task force of 8,700 soldiers, police officers and civilians,
based in N'Djamena.
Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau has threatened several times to
attack Chad and other countries fighting the militants, whose bloody
six-year insurgency is increasingly spilling across Nigeria's borders.
Security was stepped up in N'Djamena after the bombings, with scores of
police and soldiers patrolling the streets and stopping cars for
security checks.
Vehicles with tinted windows have been barred from the streets, and the
area around the presidential palace and the police headquarters sealed
off.
The burqa ban was ordered by a crisis committee set up on Tuesday after
the president returned from an African Union summit in South Africa.
Prosecutors also arrested several people on the same day.
