N'Djamena, CHAD
Boko Haram jihadists have killed nearly
100 Chadian soldiers in a seven-hour attack on an island army base, in their
deadliest assault yet on the country's armed forces.
President Idriss Deby told Chad television
he travelled to the scene of the attack on Tuesday to pay tribute to the 92
dead soldiers, saying it was the first time so many troops had been lost.
The attack early Monday morning in Boma, Lac
province, is part of an expanding jihadist campaign in the vast, marshy Lake
Chad area, where the borders of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria
converge.
Boko Haram launched
an insurgency in Nigeria in 2009 before beginning incursions in its
neighbouring countries to the east.
"We lost 92 of our soldiers, non-commissioned
officers and officers," in the attack in Boma, the president said.
"It's the first time we have lost so many
men," he said.
The attack on soldiers on the Boma peninsula lasted
at least seven hours, and reinforcements sent to help became bogged down and
were also targeted, several military sources told AFP.
"The camp is on an island where the ways in
were controlled by Boko Haram fighters, they were able to leave as they wanted
and without being forced out by the army," one security official said.
"The enemy has hit at our defences hard in
this zone," the senior officer said.
One military official said army vehicles were
destroyed, including armoured vehicles, and captured military arms were carried
off in speedboats by Boko Haram.
The base was taken by surprise by the 5:00 am
attack, the official said.
Boko Haram has stepped up its attacks in recent
months on the islands of the Lake Chad basin where it takes advantage of the
vast terrain to launch assaults.
Boko Haram's insurgency has killed 36,000 people
and displaced nearly two million in northeastern Nigeria since it began,
according to the UN.
Since 2015, countries in the region have cooperated
in the Multinational Joint Force, a regional coalition engaged around Lake Chad
with the help of local residents formed into vigilante groups.
But the regional militaries are struggling to cope
with the jihadist insurgency.
In Cameroon, violence increased in 2019 and early
2020. In Cameroon's Far North, 275 people were killed by jihadist attacks in
2019, most of them civilians, according to a report published by Amnesty
International in December.
In Niger, 174 soldiers were killed in three attacks
in January and December.
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