(FILES) Chad's junta leader Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno looks on during the closing ceremony of the National Sovereign Inclusive Dialogue (DNIS) forum, in N'Djamena on October 8, 2022. - An attack on the Chadian army by jihadist group Boko Haram killed around 40 people overnight near the Nigerian border, the government said on October 28, 2024.
"A garrison housing more than 200 soldiers was targeted by members of Boko Haram" late on October 27, 2024 in the west of the country, in an attack that "tragically left about 40 people dead", the presidency said in a statement.
Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno visited the scene early on October 28, 2024 and launched an operation "to go after the attackers and track them down", the statement added.
The attack struck in Barkaram, an island located east of the locality of Ngouboua, near the border with Niger. (Photo by Denis Sassou Gueipeur / AFP)
(FILES) Chad’s junta leader Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno looks on during the closing ceremony of the National Sovereign Inclusive Dialogue (DNIS) forum, in N’Djamena on October 8, 2022. – An attack on the Chadian army by jihadist group Boko Haram killed around 40 people overnight near the Nigerian border, the government said on October 28, 2024.
“A garrison housing more than 200 soldiers was targeted by members of Boko Haram” late on October 27, 2024 in the west of the country, in an attack that “tragically left about 40 people dead”, the presidency said in a statement.
Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno visited the scene early on October 28, 2024 and launched an operation “to go after the attackers and track them down”, the statement added.
The attack struck in Barkaram, an island located east of the locality of Ngouboua, near the border with Niger. (Photo by Denis Sassou Gueipeur / AFP)
The Chad government on Wednesday vowed to “obliterate” Boko Haram capabilities, following a deadly weekend attack by the jihadists on a military garrison.
The jihadists killed around 40 people and wounded dozens more during a Sunday raid on a base in the Lake Chad region, an area plagued by various armed groups.
In response, Chad on Monday launched Operation Haskanite, that “aims not only to secure our peaceful population” but also to “hunt down, root out and obliterate the nuisance capability of Boko Haram and its affiliates”, interim Prime Minister Abderahim Bireme Hamid told reporters in N’Djamena.
Foreign minister Abderaman Koulamallah also on Wednesday renewed the nation’s call on the international community to step up its support of counter-terrorism efforts in the region.
In a vast expanse of water and swamps, the Lake Chad region’s countless islets serve as hideouts for jihadist groups, such as Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), who carry out regular attacks on the country’s army and civilians.
Boko Haram launched an insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, leaving more than 40,000 people dead and displacing two million, and the organisation has since spread to neighbouring countries.
In March 2020, the Chadian army suffered its biggest ever one-day losses in the region, when around 100 troops died in a raid on the lake’s Bohoma peninsula.
The government, as it did at the time, has declared three days of national mourning from Tuesday, with flags flying at half-mast and a ban on celebratory activities.
