Dozens of EJDER YALÇIN 4×4 Armoured Combat Vehicle have arrived Douala Port, for the Chadian Army.
The new arrivals are being moved northwards to the country’s capital n’djamena, for onward deployment to combat units.
At least twenty Turkish-made Nurol Makina Ejder Yalçin armored vehicles were first seen during a military parade in N’djamena on August 11, 2021 to mark the country’s independence day.
According to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms sales, Turkey sold 20 wheeled armored units to Chad in 2018.
Chad is fielding the Ejder Yalçins under the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), according to a photograph which surfaced in September 2020.
Chad is currently facing several security challenges, mostly from a shadowy rebel group fighting to unseat the central government.
Chad’s president of three decades idriss deby died of wounds suffered during a visit to front-line troops in April, just hours after he was declared the winner of an election that would have given him another six years in power.
While the military quickly named President Idriss Deby Itno’s son as the country’s interim leader, the rebel group claiming responsibility for his death vowed to continue its fight for the capital — setting the stage for a potentially bloody battle for political control of the oil-producing central African nation.
Another security challenge in chad is Boko Haram and the Islamic state. Since early 2015, attacks in Chad by the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram have killed hundreds, displaced more than 100,000, and damaged the regional economy of the Lake Chad Basin. Violence peaked in 2015 with suicide bombings in the capital and the Lake region and has since declined.
Boko Haram’s presence in Chad has been most strongly felt around Lake Chad, which lies primarily within Chadian territory. As the first phase of a new military offensive by armies in the region has just been launched (Operation Rawan Kada), the risks of infiltration and a rise in attacks on the Chadian territory are real.
Following the interventions of its army against Boko Haram in neighboring countries, Chad has found itself exposed to attacks by the jihadist group on its soil, causing many civilian deaths both in N’Djamena and on the islands and shore of Lake Chad, as well as large-scale displacements. Although the number of attacks in Chad dropped sharply in 2016.