Truth Radar Times

Chad Arrests, Deports Nigerians Fleeing From Terrorism
April 29, 2026

By Zainab Ma’aji Abdul

Hundreds of Nigerians who had fled to Chad to escape insurgent violence were arrested and deported last week, according to accounts given to AFP by those detained.

Nigeria has been fighting a jihadist insurgency for 17 years, beginning with the Boko Haram uprising in 2009, which led to multiple militant factions spreading across Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.

The deportations come as analysts note a rise in jihadist activity in northeastern Nigeria over the past year.

Two Nigerians arrested in Chad told AFP that roughly 600 of their compatriots were swept up in mass arrests and taken to Kousseri, a Cameroonian town just across the border from Chad’s capital, N’Djamena.

Chadian police confirmed that deportations occurred but did not provide a number, describing the action as “a routine operation” against undocumented immigrants regardless of nationality.

Kyari Musa, a former resident of N’Djamena, told AFP that security personnel raided his home on Friday. He said officials claimed all Nigerian refugees were Boko Haram members who should leave the country, took their biometric data, and warned that anyone who returns and gets caught would face 20 years in prison.

The Nigerians said that on Saturday, Chadian customs agents took them to Gamboru, a Nigerian border town.

Ari Modu, who said his boss helped secure his release from jail and that he remains in Chad, told AFP the mass arrests began on Wednesday. He and Musa both reported that 227 people were arrested on Wednesday and another 371 on Friday.

Paul Manga, deputy director general of Chad’s national police, told AFP the operation targeted people in an irregular situation, regardless of nationality, who were then escorted to the border, insisting it was not a witch hunt.

Cameroonian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nigeria’s jihadist conflict has long posed security challenges for neighboring countries due to militant spillover. Nigeria has also recently repatriated its citizens from Chad. However, former refugees interviewed by AFP last year said they returned to their home villages in northeastern Nigeria only to find themselves on the front lines of violent conflict.

In safer, larger cities, they faced unemployment or poverty amid a weak economy, leading some to go back to Chad, where they had lived and worked for a decade.

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