Viktor Orbán spoke with the president of Chad about migration and the fight against international terrorism. The Hungarian Defense Forces will send between 200 and 400 soldiers to Chad as part of a separate mission. Its objective and ‘modus operandi’ remain a mystery.
“I am delighted to welcome President @GmahamatIdi (Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno) to Hungary. The Republic of Chad is a key country in the fight against illegal migration. Migration from Africa to Europe cannot be stopped without the countries of the Sahel region. That’s why Hungary is building a cooperative partnership with Chad“. These were the words with which Orbán welcomed the president of Chad in Budapest.
However, the reference to African migration processes is a very dubious justification for the expected and already controversial deployment of the Hungarian military contingent in Chad. As the ‘Neue Zürcher Zeitung’ (NZZ) reported in the spring, it is unlikely that Hungarian soldiers will be able to make a real contribution to migration or the fight against terrorism.
“Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese war refugees have fled to neighboring Chad, very few of whom want to travel to Europe or have the means to do so. Niger and Mali are important transit countries for migrants,” the newspaper wrote, also noting that “Hungary has little experience in Africano historical ties with Chad and little economic interest in the Sahel region.”
Migration is just one of the issues that the Hungarian prime minister will meet with the president of Chad in Budapest (who had planned to arrive in June but could not due to clashes between the Army and Islamist groups). An official statement says that they will also talk about “the joint fight against international terrorismthe exchange of experiences and knowledge in the field of defense, mutual training and the possibility of carrying out joint operations”.
As regards the joint operations with the Chadian Army and the role of the Hungarian contingent itself, the situation remains very confusing. So far, all that is known is that the Hungarian Parliament approved the deployment of troops to the country in the autumn with record speed, in just two months, and that the prime minister’s son, GásPAR Orbán, is playing a key role. on the mission.
According to this agreement, the Hungarian Defense Forces will have a military contingent of 200 armed and equipped soldiers400 of which will be deployed during the rotation period, to “provide advisory, support and mentoring services on the battlefield in the territory of the Republic of Chad.”
The Hungarian troops do not arrive in a kind of vacuum: the AFP news agency recalled that “Russia has a strong presence in border countries with Chad, such as the Central African Republic and Libya, including through the Wagner mercenary team.
Chad is the last country in the Sahel in which French troops are still presentafter Paris had to withdraw from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in recent years, but they will not stay for long: according to AFP, Paris plans to reduce its military presence from 1,000 soldiers to 300.
Western military and security analysts have been suspicious for a long time of any Hungarian mission without a NATO, EU or UN mandate.
In May, a Central European government official in charge of security policy affairs told ‘VSquare’ that Chad mission’s “anti-terrorist and migration control” objectives were a pretext.
“We have heard that the Hungarian Government wants to establish a military intelligence center in Chad, which worries us. From Prigozhin’s death and the dissolution of the Wagner GroupRussia has lost some influence in Africa. “We fear that this Hungarian military intelligence center could potentially serve Russian interests, and I suspect that Kremlin officials like Sergei Lavrov have encouraged the Hungarians,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Shortly before, the Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO), dependent on the US Army, also expressed concern by the fact that “Hungary, whose foreign policy is more aligned with Russia than with other countries in the European Union, has begun to increase its influence in West Africa“.
“Russia, overwhelmed in Africa due to its operations in Ukraine, can only deploy a few thousand ex-Wagner members in Africa (…). However, in countries where ex-Wagners do not operate, Hungary can intervene and support others authoritarian regimes, like Chad, which is seeing how Western support declines. The emerging countries of the West African “coup belt” are gaining strength, and now that Russia and, apparently, Hungary support them, Juntas are less likely to restore civil order that they promised in the beginning,” explained the American Institute.
In Chad, the presidential elections were held at the beginning of May, with the re-election of Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno. The president’s electoral advisor was none other than Maksim Sugayev, “special expert” of the Wagner Group.
