In a suspected jihadists attack, twenty-four Chadian soldiers were killed, a senior local official said on Thursday. “Troops from a returning patrol were resting when they were attacked by Boko Haram” on Wednesday, the region’s deputy prefect, Haki Djiddi, told AFP.
“Twenty-four troops were killed, several were wounded and others have scattered into the countryside,” he said.
Army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna confirmed that an attack had taken place at Tchoukou Telia, an island 190 km northwest of the capital N’Djamena, but didn’t give any toll.
Jihadists from Boko Haram and a rival splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province, have been using the region for years as a haven to attack troops and civilians.
In March 2020, around 100 Chadian troops were killed in an overnight attack on the lake’s Bohoma peninsula, prompting an offensive led by Chad’s then-president, Idriss Deby Itno.
As per UN figures, more than 36000 people most of them in Nigeria have died and three million have fled their homes.
