Chad’s president announced on Monday that around 40 Chadian soldiers were killed in an overnight attack on a military base in the Lac (“Lake”) border region with Nigeria.
President Mahamat Idriss Deby visited the scene early Monday and ordered a military operation to “track and pursue the attackers to their last trenches,” according to a statement.
The government did not say who attacked the military facility or which forces were mobilized to respond.
However, AFP news agency, citing anonymous local security sources, said “Boko Haram elements” were behind the attack. The attackers launched the attack late Sunday night and took control of the base, officials said. He then allegedly stole portable weapons, burned a vehicle containing heavy weapons, and left.
AFP also quoted a senior Chadian military official, who requested anonymity, as saying that a troop commander was among those killed in the attack.
“Yes, we have suffered many casualties, but the situation is under control and our forces are pursuing the enemy on the ground,” Raq regional governor General Saleh Haggar Tijani told AFP. Ta.
Boko Haram and offshoot groups like ISWAP are active in the region
The Lake Chad or Lac Lake region has been repeatedly attacked by rebel groups such as Boko Haram and the breakaway Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP).
The movement has its roots in Muslim-majority northeastern Nigeria, but its influence quickly spread to western Chad and northern Cameroon, where the three countries’ borders meet.
In June, the International Office for Migration recorded that more than 220,000 people had been displaced by attacks by armed groups in Lake Chad province.
Chad is also a key ally of the West in the regional fight against Islamist terrorism in the Sahel, growing in importance as other countries in the region turn their backs on the West.
Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso all ended military operations with the United States and France in recent years and instead turned to Russia for help in the aftermath of military coups.
Chad stepped up military operations against Boko Haram and other jihadist groups following attacks in the region in March 2020 that killed around 100 soldiers.
Longtime president Idriss Deby is said to have died at the age of 68 while fighting on the front lines in 2021, leaving his son, General Mahamat Idriss Deby, to take over.
msh/dj (AFP, Reuters)
