CHAIRMAN: DR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: DR. KHALID MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

World / Africa

Chad shuts border with Libya amid security concerns

Published: 06 Jan 2017 - 08:52 pm | Last Updated: 04 Nov 2021 - 10:22 pm

Reuters

N'Djamena: Chad, a key ally of the West in the fight against Islamist militants in West Africa, said it has closed its long border with Libya and will deploy troops to the area in an effort to prevent the influx of militant fighters fleeing conflict in its war-torn northern neighbour.
Libya has slid into lawlessness since the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
Although Islamic State has been ousted from its former stronghold of Sirte, the country's UN-backed government has largely failed to retain control.
Chad, worried that fighters will flee south across the border, said on Thursday it would take immediate action.
"Some isolated ... groups have converged towards the south of Libya, that is to say on the northern border of country, which is potentially exposed to serious threat of ... infiltration," Chad's Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke said, declaring the border region a "zone of military operation."
Despite a struggling economy, Chad's army has become one of the region's strongest, and it now plays a key role in efforts to combat Boko Haram - an Islamic State affiliate group - in neighbouring Nigeria. It also confronted attacks by the Islamist militant group on its own soil.
But vast desert borders of West and North Africa are notoriously difficult to police, and militants often roam between countries free and undetected.