A newly inaugurated strategic command post in Wour, tucked away in Chad’s northern Tibesti province near the borders of Niger and Libya, has sparked widespread suspicion among local civil society groups.

While the military government insists the base is purely a sovereign project to help security forces crack down on cross-border trafficking and rebel groups, citizens suspect a hidden geopolitical agenda. Many fear the state-of-the-art facility is actually a backdoor for French troops looking for a new home in the Sahel following France’s recent, dramatic diplomatic fallout and exit from Burkina Faso.

Speaking on the growing domestic anxiety, Chadian civil society activist Christophe Kagne warned that the timing and scale of the new base raise serious red flags about foreign military expansion and national sovereignty.

–ChannelAfrica–