Chad battling Boko Haram over its security

Chad has placed itself at the forefront of efforts to help Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram, making itself a target in the process. Its motives are far from selfless. Chad's economy is at stake.
Military vehicles patrol the dusty streets of Chad's capital, N'djamena, at night. Heavily armed soldiers sit on the back of army trucks, on the lookout for suspicious activity, reports dpa.
Since Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram started to launch attacks on Chadian soil from its bases in neighbouring Nigeria last month, the former French colony is on high alert.
Roadblocks and checkpoints have multiplied along Chad's border with Nigeria and in the capital. Soldiers are conducting house searches and interrogating suspects.
The political elite is afraid of assassinations - N'djamena borders directly on northern Cameroon, where Boko Haram has been infiltrating for months.
Chad has become a target for Boko Haram attacks since the former French colony sent troops to Nigeria in mid-January to help Africa's most populous nation in the fight against the terrorists.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau explicitly threatened attacks on Chad in a video message. He remained true to his word: the insurgents struck Chad four times in the past five weeks. President Idriss Deby is nervously watching their expansion in the region.
Chad has "vital interests" in helping Nigeria fight Boko Haram, Deby said during a recent press conference in the capital. And they are not only political. Boko Haram also represents "huge economic risks for Chad," according to Deby.
When Boko Haram seized the Nigerian town of Baga in early January, on northern Borno State's most eastern tip, it meant the terrorists were now practically based at the border to Chad.
Aside from the security risk this poses, Baga is a major commercial node between Chad and Nigeria, where the two countries trade about 800,000 cattle and tens of thousands of camels every year. Boko Haram's capture of the town practically paralysed this trade.
Goods now have to be transported on boats across Lake Chad to the northern border with Niger. Using this much longer route has increased costs and in raised prices, while the Chadian government is losing vital tax revenues.
"Chad wants the Boko Haram issue to end as soon as possible. If it drags out, it could lead to serious budgetary problems for Chad," Martin Ewe, researcher at the African Institute for Security Studies, told dpa.
To make matters worse, Chad's second major transport route has also become insecure due to Boko Haram infiltration: the landlocked central African nation is highly dependent on shipping goods through Cameroon's mega port of Douala, its only access to the sea.
"Cameroon is Chad's breadbasket. If the route between the two countries gets blocked, you could starve the Chadians to death," warns Ewe.
In addition, Chad has laid an oil pipeline between N'djamena and Douala, which is meant to transport significant and still largely untapped oil reserves from the now insecure area around Lake Chad. 
Exports running through the pipeline have already been affected, according to Ewe. If Boko Haram boosts its threat to the region, plans to increase exports will be thwarted.
As a result, Chad reacted forcefully to Boko Haram's regional expansion and the threat to its own economy.
Deby swiftly pushed a motion through parliament in January to send hundreds of troops and warplanes into Borno state's north-east to help Nigeria's army recapture villages and towns under Boko Haram control.
Chad troops are well trained and war-hardened. They enjoyed success in fighting al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Mali in 2012.
After having rejected foreign interference for years, Nigerian authorities - who were forced to postpone general elections scheduled for February 14 due to the insurgence - finally decided that the presence of Chadian troops will not compromise its sovereignty.
Chad also deployed 2,000 soldiers to northern Cameroon and a third contingent to Niger, without waiting for a 7,500 soldier-strong Multinational Joint Task Force with troops from Chad, Niger, Benin and Cameroon, approved by the African Union in late January, to become operational.
But now, Chad is paying a heavy price for its military involvement.
"Chadian intervention ... risks inviting a response from Boko Haram," says Boko Haram expert Jacob Zenn, a member of analyst think tank Nigeria Security Network.
"If the operational space in the Lake Chad region proves more fertile for recruitment and expansion, then Boko Haram factions may increasingly seek to carry out attacks there and to hold territory deeper in the southern Sahel," says Zenn.