The Chadian armed forces confirmed that 23 soldiers were killed and 26 wounded during a late-night insurgent assault on a military base on Barka Tolorom island.
The Chadian armed forces have confirmed that 23 soldiers were killed and 26 others wounded during a violent assault launched by the Boko Haram insurgent group against a military outpost in the Lake Chad region.
According to the Chadian army spokesperson, Colonel Issakha Acheikh Chanane, the attack occurred late Monday night on the island of Barka Tolorom, which is located along the shores of Lake Chad. Chadian forces successfully repelled the onslaught after heavy fighting, neutralizing a significant number of the attacking militants in the process.
Reacting to the development, Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno described the assault as a cowardly act of barbarism in an official statement released on Tuesday.
The President asserted that Chad remains firm, united, and completely unyielding in the face of such security threats, promising that the republic will continue its counter-insurgency operations with renewed determination until the extremist threat is entirely eliminated from the region. He also extended his deepest condolences to the families of the fallen security personnel.
Boko Haram, which originated in northeastern Nigeria, has consistently expanded its operations across borders into neighboring Central and West African nations, frequently targeting military installations and local communities in Chad, Cameroon, and Niger.
The dense network of marshy islands scattered across Lake Chad, which sits at the intersection of these four national borders, has increasingly served as the primary hideout and operational base for the insurgent groups.
The region has seen multiple deadly encounters over the years, including a major assault in March 2020 on the Bohoma peninsula that resulted in the deaths of approximately 100 Chadian soldiers, making this latest incident part of a prolonged and volatile regional conflict.
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