Boko Haram militants launched a nighttime assault on a military outpost on Barka Tolorom island in the Lake Chad region Monday, killing at least 23 soldiers and wounding 26 more, Chad’s armed forces reported Tuesday. The military said in a statement that the attackers were eventually repelled and that a “significant number of sect members were neutralized.”
President Mahamat Idriss Deby, in a separate statement, called the attack “cowardly.” The government did not release details on the number of militants killed or the size of the garrison that was attacked.
The Lake Chad region, a resource-rich area bordering Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Niger, has been a flashpoint for more than a decade. Boko Haram, the Nigeria-based insurgency, has killed several thousand people and displaced millions, according to United Nations estimates. Armed groups compete for control of fishing grounds and farmland, often financing their operations through what they describe as taxes imposed on local communities.
The attack Monday came as Boko Haram continues to mount cross-border raids, underscoring the persistent security challenge facing governments around the lake.