As much as I love to see Boko Haram comprehensively defeated and Shekau captured alive to answer for his heinous crimes against humanity, Chad’s announcement today that it had killed 1,000 fighters and rid the islands of the group leaves me with several question marks.
Firstly, Chad didn’t adduce evidence to support their first claim. The photos they released via President Deby’s Twitter only show a dozen or so bodies. If they truly killed 1,000, where are the rest? Plus, 1,000 is such a round figure to make the assertion sound convenient.
Secondly, their declaration of victory is premature. We’ve seen similar ones before. In Dec. 2016, the Nigerian Army said it had captured BH’s “Camp Zero” and presented @MBuhari with a flag and a book which they said were defeated Shekau’s. But what did we see next? 
Thirdly, if nothing else, the past decade has taught us that BH cannot be defeated with a one-off 10-day operation by a single country.
Again, if we want to militarily defeat BH, all affected countries must articulate a sustainable operation and religiously implement it TOGETHER.
