Chad, Cameroon, CAR Border Region a ‘Powder Keg’ of Crime

ADF STAFF

As kidnapping for ransom has become a source of income for terrorists and criminals in parts of the Lake Chad Basin, authorities say that several hundred victims remain in captivity. A new report from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) recommends a three-pronged effort to stop the attacks.

Some of the governments in the region already are cooperating. In early April, Cameroon said it had received five civilians from Chadian authorities. The civilians were abducted this year from Cameroonian villages near the Chadian border. Victor Boukar, one of the former hostages, told Voice of America (VOA) that heavily armed men chained the captives’ legs every night and tied their hands with ropes during the day. He said they were tortured regularly and were given only one meal per day during their 70 days in captivity.

Boukar said captors regularly forced 35 hostages, including seven women, to move to different localities on both sides of the Cameroon-Chad border to avoid rescue by government troops.

The kidnapping problems made international news in February with the abduction and eventual release of a Polish doctor who had been volunteering at a hospital in Chad’s Tandjile region. Attackers posing as patients kidnapped her and a Mexican doctor, who managed to escape. Dr. Aleksandra Kuligowska was held hostage for five days in a forest. French and Chadian forces rescued her.

“When the helicopter flew overhead, the kidnappers came out to try to shoot down the helicopter, leaving the hostage alone,” said local governor Ildjima Abdraman, as reported by Agence France-Presse. “While our ground troops advanced, they managed to rescue the hostage. All the kidnappers were killed. There were three of them.”

Kidnappings are only one part of the problem in the region. In March, Chad said its troops attacked border villages in Mayo Kebbi East and Mayo Kebbi West provinces, where several hundred people were held hostage by armed gangs and terrorists. VOA reported that Soldiers freed “scores of civilians.” Cameroonian nationals returned to their home country, and Chadians were reunited with their families after receiving medical care. Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, said Chad and Cameroon are working together to fight rebels and bring peace along their border.

Bakari said that Cameroonian troops showed no mercy to armed men and extremists hiding in local towns and villages, adding that his country is letting Chadian troops cross the border to track down Boko Haram militants and armed gangs.

HOTBED OF LAWLESSNESS

While all four of the countries in the Lake Chad Basin — Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria — have had recent problems, the tri-border region connecting Chad, Cameroon and the Central African Republic has become a hotbed of lawlessness over the past 20 years, with kidnappings increasingly becoming a crime of choice. Chadian authorities told the institute that in 2022, criminals kidnapped 46 people and assassinated 12 people, with nearly $43 million Central African Francs (CFA), or $70,000, paid in ransoms. In 2023, 41 people were abducted, eight were killed and two were missing, with $52.4 million in CFA, or $85,000, collected in ransoms.

Authorities say the problems in the Lake Chad Basin began with the arrival of Boko Haram in the early 2000s. The terrorist group launched its insurgency with a goal of establishing Islamic law in Nigeria’s northeast. The insurgency since has spread to other countries. The terrorist group is believed to have displaced more than 3.2 million people, and ReliefWeb says the group has left 10.6 million people in need of urgent humanitarian care.

The tri-border area’s problems are numerous. Lake Chad has shrunk by about 90% since the 1960s, mostly because of climate change and the increased use of irrigation systems. As the lake has shrunk, violence between farmers and herders has intensified. The institute notes that Chad in particular has been troubled by a proliferation of firearms due to its internal conflicts and the spillover from arms stockpiles from Libya, as well as from Sudan and the CAR.

Compounding the misery is the ongoing civil war in neighboring Sudan, which has forced more than 1.8 million refugees to flee the country. The United Nations’ Operational Data Portal reports that as of mid-April, more than 573,000 Sudanese people had fled to Chad, overwhelming its already-stretched resources. South Sudan, already one of the poorest countries in the world, has had to absorb 646,000 Sudanese refugees.

The institute says the Chad-Cameroon-CAR region is a “powder keg of crime” and requires swift action from all three governments to stop the kidnappings and related crimes. In an April 2024 report, the institute said the three countries must be better equipped to handle the region’s rough terrain, and needs to add off-road vehicles and motorcycles. Such equipment, the institute said, would help create information networks, surveillance posts and more patrols by pedestrians and vehicles.

The three countries, the institute said, must improve collaboration. “This should include setting up cooperation mechanisms, joint patrols and the permanent exchange of information between forces in these areas,” the report said. “Negotiating transboundary search and seizure rights is also essential. This has been done among Lake Chad Basin countries as part of the Multinational Joint Task Force against Boko Haram.”

The institute also said the three countries need to work with “vigilance committees,” made up of young people, whose “extensive knowledge” of these environments can be used to gather information and track down kidnappers.

Critical to the region’s success, the institute said, is Chad and its neighbors preventing kidnappers from colluding with other criminal and extremist forces.