Overview: Chad has experienced persistent terrorist threats in the border areas near population centers surrounding Lake Chad and suffered five attacks against military and civilian targets in 2022 in the Lake and neighboring Hadjer-Lamis regions. Boko Haram (BH) continued using IEDs in the Lake Chad region, but more often carried out raids with semiautomatic rifles. BH and ISIS-West Africa (ISIS-WA) maintained minimal presence in Chad, with BH conducting the most activity within Chad.

Security forces and basic government services remained underresourced, which limited the Chadian government’s ability to address all security concerns, but Chadian armed forces led missions within the Sahel to contribute to regional security. Chad continued to support the following counterterrorism efforts: deploying soldiers to Mali to support the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA); supporting the Lake Chad region’s Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF); and committing forces to the G-5 Sahel Joint Force.

On November 9, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the end of Operation Barkhane, France’s counterterrorism (CT) mission to the Sahel, but French troops remained in N’Djamena under a new arrangement.

2022 Terrorist Incidents: BH and ISIS-WA in 2022 continued attacks around the eastern and northern shores of Lake Chad, including attacks carried out by BH in Chadian territory. Local authorities often conflate BH and ISIS-WA.

• On February 22, members of Boko Haram ambushed Chadian troops who were refueling, killing five soldiers.
• On August 14, members of Boko Haram killed two civilians near Bol in the Lac region.
• On August 15, members of Boko Haram killed two Chadian soldiers near Bol in the Lac region.
• On September 17, members of Boko Haram killed four soldiers, including a brigade commander and judicial police officer, in Hadjer-Lamis, 12 miles from N’Djamena.
• On November 22, members of Boko Haram attacked a Chadian Army outpost in Bouka-Toulloroum, Lac region, and killed 38 soldiers.

Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security: The United States continued support for Chad’s Special Antiterrorism Group Division, which is deployed to fight terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin and across the Sahel, and for other Chadian military organizations involved in the counterterrorism fight, for the majority of 2022. The Director General of National Police remained supportive of U.S. CT efforts, and the Counterterrorism Investigation Unit has already had success in supporting an operation to seize illegal weapons in the Lake Chad region and led an operation to seize a substantial quantity of drugs in N’Djamena. Illicit trade often has been used to fund terrorist groups operating in the Lake Chad region.

Securing borders remains challenging. Porous borders, particularly across Lake Chad, provide easy passage for terrorists and criminal entities. Border security remained a shared task of the Gendarmes, Army, Customs, and the National and Nomadic Guard (GNNT), none of which is resourced sufficiently. The army and GNNT constituted the front line in nearly all major incidents involving BH and ISIS-WA. At ports of entry, both air and ground, Chad continued to be a partner in the Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System (PISCES) program, which builds capacity for partners to screen travelers against known terrorist databases.

Countering the Financing of Terrorism: Chad is a member of the Task Force on Money Laundering in Central Africa. The nation’s FIU, Agence Nationale d ’Investigation Financière du Tchad, is a member of the Egmont Group. There were no significant changes in 2022.

Countering Violent Extremism: Chad actively opposed violent extremism. The High Council of Islamic Affairs promoted peaceful coexistence and tolerance, and diverse faith groups used the Dialogue to mitigate conflict. The national coordination office for the G-5 Sahel maintained its radicalization to violence prevention unit, which initiates coordination meetings of CVE practitioners.

International and Regional Cooperation: Chad engaged actively in the following organizations:

• The UN
• MNJTF
• G-5 Sahel
• The Lake Chad Basin Commission

Surrounded by conflict, Chad deploys security forces to contribute to regional stability in the Sahel.  Chad contributed 1,425 soldiers trained by the United States to the most challenging regions of Mali as part of MINUSMA, 2,000 soldiers in support of the MNJTF, and 650 soldiers in northern Chad as part of the G-5 Sahel Joint Force East Zone Headquarters. And Chad deployed 1,200 soldiers in the Liptako-Gourma tri-border region joining Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso as part of the G-5 Sahel Joint Force.  Chad also supported the Chad-Sudan Mixed Force by contributing close to 900 soldiers as part of the joint border security effort with Sudan.

N’Djamena hosts the headquarters of the five-nation (Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria) MNJTF, which was formed to counter the threat posed by ISIS-WA, al-Qa’ida, and Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region. N’Djamena also hosts France’s largest operational military deployment in the world, formerly known as Task Force Barkhane, which provides French military planners with strategic command position while it reevaluates the array of French forces throughout the Sahel.

Chad has received security resource support from the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, the People’s Republic of China, Russia, and Türkiye in the past, and continued resources shortfalls are forcing Chad to re-assess its need for military capabilities to address encroaching security challenges, including terrorism.