Special Anti-Terrorist Group (SATG)

The Special Anti-Terrorist Group (SATG - Groupement Spécial de Lutte contre le Terrorisme / Special Group Fight against Terrorism) is Chad’s premier counter-terrorism force providing security throughout Chad against violent extremist organizations while also supporting multi-national counter-terror missions across the African continent. United States Special Operations Forces (USSOF) have worked with the SATG units to build capacity and share important lessons learned during regional efforts to counter violent extremist organizations such as Boko Haram. Recent exchanges have included training on maritime operations near Lake Chad, medical readiness training exercises, and joint counter-terrorism training. The SATG has supported counter terrorism operations in Mali, Cameroon, Nigeria, as well as in Chad.

The Government of Chad made countering potential terrorist attacks and threats from across the Sahel region a priority at the highest level. By engaging in the fight against Boko Haram in northern Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria; supporting the French-led mission in northern Mali; and passing counterterrorism legislation; Chad’s counterterrorism strategy focused on promoting internal and regional stability. Chad provided combat forces to the Lake Chad Basin Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) that also includes Benin, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria, and continued to take an active role in that coalition and fighting violent extremists in the Lake Chad region, Nigeria, and neighboring states. This follows Chad’s important contribution in 2013 to the French intervention in northern Mali, Operation Sabre, and its contribution to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

US special forces in 2004 trained Chadian soldiers in counter-terrorism as part of the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative. US Marines supervise Chadian soldiers as they practice maintenance on their AK-47 assault rifles. The Marines were part of a team of Marine Corps Forces Europe, Marine Corps Forces Atlantic, and II Marine Expeditionary Force Marines and Sailors who are training Chadian soldiers in individual through company level infantry skills. The training was part of a State Department initiative to reduce the flow of illicit arms, goods and people through Chad's borders and deny safe havens to terrorists.

US Army Brigadier General Donald C. Bolduc, the Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA) commander met January 28, 2016 with Brigadier General Abderamane Youssouf Mery, Commander of the Special Anti-Terrorist Group (SATG) and Chadian Special Operations Forces counterparts while touring local military bases in N’Djamena. SOCAFRICA, based in Stuttgart, Germany, is US Africa Command’s lead counter-terrorism component and has an enduring relationship with Chadian Special Operations Forces as the organizations collaborate on countering the threat of violent extremist organizations in the Lake Chad Basin.

There were positive developments in the security situation in eastern Chad owing essentially to the normalization of relations between Chad and the Sudan following the N’Djamena Agreement of 15 January 2010, which led to the deployment of a 3,000-strong joint Chadian-Sudanese force along the border. The decision was also taken to open the border between the two countries, which led to action being taken to deny any cross-border movements of armed elements.

Medics from 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division — the regionally aligned force based in Fort Riley, Kan. — deployed in the spring of 2014 with an operations noncommissioned officer from US Army Africa to teach Tactical Combat Casualty Care, or TCCC, to the Special Anti-terrorism Group in N’Djamena, Chad. The mission was one of many similar deployments throughout western Africa — including ongoing training missions in Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

TCCC is divided into three phases: care under fire, given at the scene of an injury while under attack; tactical field care, given once the casualty is no longer under hostile fire but when medical equipment is still limited; and tactical evacuation care, given while the casualty is being moved to a safe location equipped to deliver a higher level of care. The team trained a group of about 10 Chadian NCOs and officers on the skills needed to deal with the preventable causes of death on the battlefield. From the evaluation of a casualty to hemorrhage control and airway management, the lessons the NCOs presented left the Chadian military better able to care for its soldiers.

The Chadian soldiers had just come back from an anti-terrorism mission in Mali, where many of their comrades had died because the group was not prepared to provide medical care on the battlefield. The majority of the individuals participating in the training had never been exposed to basic medical principles and were not aware of even the most rudimentary measures necessary to avoid infection.