Chad bans Muslim veils over terror activities

Chad has banned the full-face Muslim veil and ordered security forces to seize burqas from markets and burn them.

“Wearing the burqa must stop immediately from today, not only in public places and schools but throughout the whole of the country,” Prime Minister Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet told religious leaders the day before the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Any type of clothing that leaves only the eyes visible is a form of “camouflage” and is now banned, he added, asking religious leaders to spread the message in mosques, churches and other holy places.

Deubet said security forces in the Muslim majority country had been instructed to “go into the markets and to seize all the burqas on sale and burn them”.

Anyone found wearing a burqa will be “arrested, tried and sentenced in summary proceedings”, he added.

Boko Haram has used female suicide bombers to launch attacks in the past by hiding explosive devices under their clothes.

Chad’s government on Tuesday declared three days of national mourning for victims of the blasts in the capital N’Djamena..

President Idriss Deby said he was “not surprised” Chad has been targeted because of the leading role it is playing in the regional effort to crush Boko Haram fighters.

“I have continually told the government to not drop its guard,” he said, urging the international community to back Chad and its neighbours in their campaign.
Regional Task Force

Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Benin and Cameroon agreed last week to set up a regional task force of 8,700 soldiers, police officers and civilians, based in N’Djamena.

Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau has threatened several times to attack Chad and other countries fighting the militants, whose bloody six-year insurgency spilled across Nigeria’s borders.

Security was stepped up in N’Djamena after the bombings, with scores of police and soldiers patrolling the streets and stopping cars for security checks.

Vehicles with tinted windows have been barred from the streets, and the area around the presidential palace and the police headquarters sealed off.

The burqa ban was ordered by a crisis committee set up on Tuesday after the president returned from an African Union summit in South Africa. Prosecutors also arrested several people on the same day.