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Agence France-Presse

An attack by jihadist group Boko Haram killed around 40 Chadian troops overnight near the Nigerian border, prompting an army operation to hunt down the militants, the government and local sources said on Monday.
Members of Boko Haram targeted a garrison housing more than 200 Chadian soldiers late on Sunday in the Lake Chad region, an area plagued by various armed groups, local sources said.
The presidency said in a statement that the attack struck near Ngouboua in the west of the country, “tragically leaving about 40 people dead”.

Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno visited the scene early on Monday and launched an operation “to go after the attackers and track them down in their furthest hideouts”, the statement added.
The presidency blamed Sunday’s attack on Boko Haram in a second statement issued later on Monday.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the group.
The garrison’s unit commander was among the dead, a high-ranking officer said on condition of anonymity.
The assailants “had time to seize ammunition and equipment before they retreated”, the officer added.
Around 20 people were also wounded, military sources said.
“Boko Haram members took control of the garrison, seized the weapons, burnt vehicles equipped with heavy arms, and left,” said one local source, who asked not to be named.
The surprise attack struck a Chadian army position near the Nigerian border late on Sunday evening, military sources said.
“We have many casualties, yes, but the situation is under control and our forces are on the ground pursuing the enemy,” the regional governor, General Saleh Haggar Tidjani, said.

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 make 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 attack prompted then-president Idriss Deby Itno – the current president’s father – to launch an anti-jihadist offensive.
The current president “would like to reassure the population in the area as well as defence and security forces of his unwavering commitment to defend and secure the entire country”, the presidency added in Monday’s statement.
The International Office for Migration in June recorded more than 220,000 people displaced by attacks from armed groups in Lake Chad province.


The Chadian leader recently reshuffled the leadership of the armed forces, a move sources said was linked to some officers’ opposition to his stance on the war in Sudan.
Chad has been accused of channelling weapons from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, a militia that has been fighting against the Sudanese army for over a year.
Both the UAE and Chad have denied the accusations.
The Sudan conflict has left tens of thousands dead and displaced millions, according to the United Nations.
Chad is an important ally for French and US forces aiming to fight jihadists in the Sahel, which has become the epicentre of global terrorism under attack by factions loyal to al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have ended military operations with the United States and France in recent years and turned to Russia for support instead.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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Paramilitary rampage kills more than 120 in east-central Sudan

Africa

Soldiers of the Chad Army stand next to a Land Cruiser,, 25 km from N’Djamena, on January 3, 2020. At least 40 Chadian troops were killed during an attack by Boko Haram Photo: AFP

Chad’s junta leader Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno. Photo: AFP

Chadian President Mahamat Deby Itno launched a hunt for the militants in Lake Chad. Photo: AP

Sudan paramilitary attack kills 50, activists say

A Sudanese national flag attached to a machine gun of Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) soldiers. Photo: Reuters

Rapid Support Forces (RSF) members gather at the crash site of a Russian warplane they shot down at Al Malha, Sudan, in this screenshot obtained from a social media video released on October 21. Photo: Social Media/via Reuters

Farmers harvest peanuts at the New Halfa irrigated agricultural project in Kassala state in eastern Sudan on October 20. A UN-backed assessment in August 2024 declarrf a famine in the Zamzam refugee camp in Darfur near the city of El-Fasher, with other UN sources stating that Sudan has become home to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Photo: AFP

Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces in 2019. Photo: AP

Sudanese, displaced from the Gezira district, arrive in the eastern city of Gedaref on Saturday. Photo: AFP

A screen grab taken from AFPTV video footage on April 20, 2023, showing an aerial view of black smoke rising above the Khartoum International Airport amid ongoing battles between the forces of two rival generals – Sudan’s army chief and de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Photo: AFP

Boko Haram leader ‘kills himself’ in fight with rival jihadists in Nigeria – two weeks after it was reported he had died

Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, at an undisclosed location in Nigeria. Photo: AFP

FILE PHOTO: Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau speaks in front of guards in an unknown location in Nigeria in this still image taken from an undated video obtained on January 15, 2018. Boko Haram Handout/Sahara Reporters via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau holds a weapon in an unknown location in Nigeria in this still image taken from an undated video obtained on January 15, 2018. Boko Haram Handout/Sahara Reporters via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT/File Photo/File Photo

News

World

The attack, which took place near Ngouboua in the Lake Chad region, targeted a garrison housing around 200 soldiers


The attack, which took place near Ngouboua in the Lake Chad region, targeted a garrison housing around 200 soldiers.


War and conflict

Terrorism

Islamic State