Suicide Bombers Strike Chad’s Capital

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/world/africa/suicide-bombers-strike-chads-capital.html

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DAKAR, Senegal — Suicide bombers struck for the first time in the capital of Chad on Monday morning, apparently in retaliation for the leading role the country has played in a regional war against the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram, officials said.

Bombs were detonated at Police Headquarters in the heart of the capital, Ndjamena, and at the police training academy. Twenty-three people were killed, in addition to the four attackers, and 101 people were wounded, according to a statement from the president’s office. Images on state television showed the bloodied, uniformed bodies of police cadets scattered on the floor of the police academy.

No claim of responsibility had been made by Monday afternoon, but the statement from the president’s office said directly that Boko Haram was to blame.

The Chadian government said the suicide bombers blew themselves up around 9 a.m. but gave few other details.

The country is effectively an authoritarian one-party state, and its government typically communicates sparingly. A man who answered the phone at the president’s office said “loud explosions” had shaken the capital, and then hung up. Other Chadian officials reached by phone on Monday refused to comment. But the methods and targets directly recalled those commonly employed by Boko Haram.

A spokesman for the country’s ruling party, Jean-Bernard Padaré, said in a telephone interview that the attacks were coordinated and that the first attacker blew himself up in the spacious courtyard of Police Headquarters. “They wanted to test us,” Mr. Padaré said. “But it shows they are desperate. They thought it would hurt our morale, but it only confirms our will to eradicate them.” He described the noise made by the first explosion as sounding “like a 16-wheeler that had blown a tire.”

By Monday afternoon, markets in the capital were deserted, government buildings in the city center were surrounded by security forces, and checkpoints were set up on all major roads. Residents reached by phone said that a general atmosphere of fear had settled over the city.

Chad has been fighting Boko Haram since January, engaging the group more vigorously than Nigeria’s own forces have. The Chadian Army has recaptured towns inside Nigeria from the group and lost dozens of soldiers in the fighting.

Boko Haram’s leader has mocked the Chadians and threatened bloody retribution, but before Monday its counterattacks were confined to civilian targets well away from the capital.

The attacks appeared sure to change the stakes for Chad, a country with a long history of desert warfare and an army of battle-hardened troops. Western powers like France and the United States have come to rely on Chad as a more dependable and effective military ally than Nigeria in the fight against terrorism in Africa. Chadian troops were deployed with success in Mali, fighting Al Qaeda’s regional affiliate there in 2013, and they have scored the only unquestioned successes so far against Boko Haram.

Nigeria is showing signs that it is prepared to join the fight against Boko Haram with new vigor. The country’s new president, Muhammadu Buhari, visited Ndjamena several weeks ago in one of his first acts as president.

The Chadian government’s shocked reaction to Monday’s bombings, which it called “ignoble and barbaric attacks,” illustrated that its fight with Boko Haram was far from over.

“These attacks, which seek to create a psychosis in the population, will not shake Chad’s determination to combat terrorism,” Hassan Sylla Bakari, the government spokesman, said in a statement that was read aloud on state television. “The government will pursue, without faltering, the fight against these criminals whose objective is to sow death and fear in Chad’s families,” he said. “Boko Haram has chosen the wrong target. These lawless terrorists will be pursued and neutralized, wherever they are.”