Boko Haram generalizes its strategy to murderous raids

Boko Haram launched an attack on the Tetewa Island on Lake Chad, killing at least six people on the night of July 13 which lasted until the dawn of Tuesday, July 14.

A foray that fits into the new dynamics of the armed Islamists, since their allegiance to the Islamic State Organization: terrorizing the population and causing damage without occupying the territory.

On Monday night, a boat docked on the banks of Tetewa Island, which is a stone's throw from the Nigerian shores of Lake Chad, and 80 kilometres north of Ndjamena. Onboard were a dozen heavily armed men who landed and surrounded the villages. They burnt houses and killed six people: five young muhâjirîn (pupils of a Koranic school) and a Malian national who came to the Island to trade.

However, faced with the tumult raised by their action, the attackers fled. Where did the gun men run to? The question was on everyone's lips in Ndjamena on Tuesday. For the authorities, the attack by Boko Haram on the Island such as those that took place few days in villages in the region is part of 'new strategy' of Islamists who "are no longer able to have their territory".

According to the Chadian authorities, if Boko Haram intensifies the kamikaze attacks, it is with the hope to scare people and win the psychological battle. Based on these attacks on its territory, the Chadian authorities have increased measures to strengthen security but some of its citizens find it difficult to comply. Among them is the prohibition of wearing the burqa, taken effect on June 17, which is sometimes difficult to enforce in some areas of the country especially in the South.

Mayor of the Bebedjia city was even threatened with death for having forced a fully veiled woman to show her face. "I asked the woman to remove the burqa she was wearing. The woman refused. My bodyguard removed what she was wearing with force,” noted Norbert Maïnan to RFI.

But in the market where the scene took place, the incident did not go unnoticed. "There were people who were there eating. They stood with white weapons against me and it took two people to protect me," said the Mayor of the small town. He however said he was not intimidated: "Against winds and tides, the Government has the power to maintain the peace of the people," he said.

Since the beginning of June, at least 80 people were killed in bombings and shootings in Chad and countries assisting in the fight against the strongholds of the armed group in northeastern Chad.

The suicide attacks that struck the capital of Chad on June 15 and July 11 were claimed by Boko Haram but under its new name: the Islamic State, province of West Africa. In a video, in January, the Islamist group announced a new name, “preferring Boko Haram to "people of the Sunnah, preaching jihad."

Since his allegiance in March to the organization of the Islamic State based in Iraq, the group led by Abubakar Shekau changed its name again. This change of name, endorsed by the official spokesman of the EI, the Syrian Abu Mohamed al-Abed, also signed a metamorphosis of the communication of the Nigerian jihadists, with videos, photos and news releases on social networks.

The country’s allegiance with the EI also coincided with the sudden kamikaze attacks outside the Nigerian borders, in Chad and also in Cameroon where the suicide bombing have however not been rectified.