Boko Haram insurgents killed 17 Chadian soldiers in a weekend attack on a military post that also left 96 of the assailants dead in the country’s west, Chad’s army said. The attack in the Lake Chad region happened on Saturday, army spokesperson Gen Issakh Acheikh said on national television Sunday night. He did not provide details.
“The army assures the population that the situation is under control and that actions to track down residual elements continue as part of Operation Haskanite,” Acheikh said, referring to a military operation launched to dislodge Boko Haram militants from Lake Chad.
The Lake Chad region has been plagued this year by frequent attacks from insurgents, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa. It has revived fears of violence after a period of peace following a successful operation launched in 2020 by the Chadian army to destroy the extremist groups’ bases.
Last month, 40 soldiers were killed during an attack on a military base, prompting President Mahamat Deby Itno to launch an operation to dislodge Boko Haram militants from Lake Chad. In March, an attack the government blamed on Boko Haram killed seven soldiers.
Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency more than a decade ago against Western education, seeks to establish Islamic law in Nigeria’s northeast. The insurgency has spread to West African neighbours including Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Boko Haram in Chad
Chad, a country of nearly 18 million people, has been reeling from political turmoil before and after a controversial presidential election that resulted in Deby Itno’s victory. He had led the country as interim president during the period of military rule that followed the death of his father in 2021. The region has been attacked repeatedly by insurgencies including Islamic State in West Africa and Boko Haram, which erupted in northeast Nigeria in 2009 and spread to the west of Chad.
Chad is an important ally for French and US forces seeking to help fight a 12-year jihadist insurgency in West Africa’s Sahel region. Military juntas that seized power in recent years in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – whose shared borders have become epicentres of jihadist violence – have turned their backs on the West in favour of Russian support.
(With inputs from agency)
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