“The attack by Boko Haram on the border town of Baga is the latest in a long series of atrocities killing hundreds and displacing thousands of innocent people,” European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement Monday.
“Increasingly frequent attacks, notably into Cameroon, demonstrate that the threat from Boko Haram has taken on a regional dimension.”
Chad has thus far been spared attack by Boko Haram, but only a thin sliver of land in northern Cameroon separates the desert state from the Islamists’ stronghold in Nigeria’s Borno state.
Chad has also been affected by the refugee crisis sparked by Boko Haram’s insurgency, and Deby has warned he will “not stand idly by” as the extremists enlarge their field of activity.
Nigeria, which has been unable to halt Boko Haram on its own, expressed its conditional support of Chadian soldiers eventually being deployed on its soil.
“All backing of our operations will be welcomed, but that must conform to operations we already have under way, given those are on Nigerian territory,” said Nigerian army spokesman Chris Olukolade.
The leaders of Ghana and Germany, who met in Berlin on Monday, supported using EU money to help fund a regional African force to battle the Islamists.
“I believe it is right to choose African troops for this task but it is our common interest that we sustainably finance such a force,” Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters.
Ghanian President John Dramani Mahama said “it would be very important if our partners could join in terms of how we finance that force”.
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