Chad’s President Idriss Deby declared Tuesday that efforts to combat neighboring Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadists had succeeded in “decapitating” the group and would be wrapped up “by the end of the year”.

Addressing reporters in the capital N’Djamena on the 55th anniversary of Chad’s independence from France, Deby said: “Boko Haram is decapitated. There are little groups (of Boko Haram members) scattered throughout east Nigeria, on the border with Cameroon. It is within our power to definitively overcome Boko Haram.”

“The war will be short, with the setting up of the regional force, it will be over by the end of the year,” Deby added, referring to a new five-country force aimed at ending Boko Haram’s bloody six-year Islamist insurgency that he said would be “operational in a few days”.

Read More: AFP