At least 26 members of Chad’s armed forces were killed and many more wounded Wednesday night in a Boko Haram attack on Lake Chad near the Cameroon border, where Nigerian-born jihadist insurgents have been frequently attacked.
“Twenty-six elements of the Chadian armed forces have fallen short of honor, and another 14 have been injured, eight of them seriously. “Many terrorists have been neutralized and a clearing operation is under way,” army spokesman General Azem Bermando Aguna told AFP.
The deaths of military personnel in ambush “reminds us of the challenges we always face in part of our borders. The heavy price we pay in this asymmetric war is bitter but it is not paid in vain. We will subdue the terrorist Lernaean Hydra “, was the reaction of Mahamat Idris Debi, head of the so-called Military Transitional Council, which came to power after the death of his father, President Idris Debbie Itno, in April 2021 in the battle with Attar.
There are many inhabited islets in Lake Chad, a large area in the western part, some of which are bases of Boko Haram or its faction that split and renamed itself Islamic State in West Africa (IKDA).
The Chadian authorities indiscriminately call both organizations “Boko Haram”, members of which often carry out attacks on the army and civilians.
In March 2020, some 100 members of Chad’s army were killed overnight by Boko Haram members in Booma, a lake province where a military base is located.
- Nine dead in bus-lorry collision!
- 26 military dead in ambush
- Lions killed three children in Ngorongoro
In April 2020, President Idris Debbie Itnno ordered an army offensive against jihadists in the region in retaliation, including Niger and Nigeria, and assured that “not a single jihadist” remained in the region. But the actions against the army and against the civilians continued.
Multiplication of deadly attacks
In the border areas of Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger, attacks have multiplied in recent months. The jihadists use the very good knowledge of the swampy area.
Jihadists have also escalated deadly attacks on security forces and civilians in northern Cameroon in recent years.
In late July, Boko Haram launched several attacks in countries in the region. On July 24, at least six Cameroonian soldiers were killed in an attack in Sagme, a few dozen kilometers from the border with Nigeria. Three days later, five soldiers and a civilian were killed in the same area north of Cameroon.
The Boko Haram insurgency erupted in northeastern Nigeria in 2009, before its action spread to neighboring states. More than 36,000 people, mostly in Nigeria, have been killed and another 3 million have been forced to flee their homes, according to UN estimates.
In 2016, the organization split into factions under the leadership of its historic leader Abubakar Sekou and a second self-proclaimed IKDA and swearing allegiance to the Islamic State.
Boko Haram confirmed in mid-June the death of its historic leader, Abubakar Sekau, in a battle with IKDA members.
