The Chadian National Army is in the process of expanding from 35,000 to 60,000 personnel, Defence Minister General Daoud Yahya Brahim told the country's parliament on 24 September.
“We have already started the process with the recruitment and training of soldiers and non-commissioned officers,” Reuters quoted him as saying. “The objective is to build elite unites capable of adapting to the asymmetric warfare our Sahel countries are facing.”
A video of his parliamentary speech released by Chad's Alwida Info news website did not include that quote, but he did say that he had 3,000 gendarmes to recruit.
Gen Brahim was endorsing a bill on the general status of the military, defence, and security forces, which he said reforms the military's ranking and pay system.
The bill was passed with only one abstention but the timing of the vote was subsequently criticised by Succès Masra, an opposition party leader, on the basis that it should have been delayed until after elections have been held to end the current transition period following the death of President Idriss Déby in April.
Radio France Internationale also reported Masra as saying the bill fails to address the main problems with the Chadian military, which he said are its domination by the Zaghawa, Gorane, and Arab ethnic groups and the focusing of resources on the Directorate General of Security Services of the State Institutions (DGSSEI) to the detriment of other branches.
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