44 Jihadists captured in Chad found dead in strange circumstances

At least 44 jihadists belonging to Boko Haram were found dead in their cells in strange circumstances in Chad, and although official sources allege that it was a mass suicide, judicial and police investigations in the country point to a strange poisoning. The prisoners died on Thursday 16 April in their cells, as detailed in a televised message last night by Youssouf Tome, Chad's chief prosecutor. "We immediately buried 40 bodies and returned four to a medical examiner for an autopsy. The conclusion of the autopsy indicates that there has been consumption of a lethal substance that caused heart problems in some and severe asphyxiation in others, the same prosecutor confirmed in statements to Efe this Sunday.

The dead were part of a group of 58 members of Boko Haram who had been captured after an attack that cost the lives of about 100 Chadian soldiers. They had arrived in N'Djamena on the 15th to stand trial.

The Chadian Ministry of Justice has denied any mistreatment of the prisoners and defends the hypothesis of a collective suicide, but civil society groups accuse the authorities of applying inhumane conditions to the members of Boko Haram and also question the version of the Prosecutor's Office.

"According to the information we have received, these jihadist prisoners died from thirst and hunger," Mahamat Nour Ahmat Ibedou, secretary-general of the Chadian Convention for the Defence of Human Rights (Ctddh) told Efe. "They have not died as the prosecutor says. These jihadists have been left to die for reasons that only the government knows about," Ibedou added.

Chadian Justice Minister Djimet Arabi has said that the 14 terrorists still alive will be tried in the coming days. Since early 2020, Boko Haram, a Nigerian-born organization, has intensified its attacks on Chadian security forces.

The country's government, in fact, announced this month that it would stop sending its soldiers on individual anti-jihadist missions in the Lake Chad basin, but said it would continue to participate in joint operations with other countries, such as those of the G5 Sahel joint force. Boko Haram operates in the neighbouring countries bordering the Lake Chad Basin: Chad (where he began his attacks in 2015), Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. The group was created in 2002 in the town of Maiduguri (northeast Nigeria) by the spiritual leader Mohameh Yusuf to denounce the abandonment of the north of the country by the authorities, but it was radicalised from 2009 after the death of its leader. Since then, his bloody campaign has killed some 27,000 people and left some two million displaced, according to UN figures.