N’DJAMENA (Reuters) – At least 15 Chadian soldiers were killed and 32 others wounded in clashes between the army and Boko Haram fighters on Saturday, the army’s spokesman said, adding that 96 Boko Haram members were also killed.
General Issakh Acheikh on Sunday did not say where the operation took place or provide any details on the circumstances.
He said on national television that the army also wounded 11 Boko Haram members, and seized arms and equipment.
“The army assures the population that the situation is under control and that actions to track down residual elements continue as part of Operation Haskanite,” Acheikh said, referring to a military operation launched to dislodge Boko Haram militants from Lake Chad.
The region has been attacked repeatedly by insurgencies including Islamic State in West Africa and Boko Haram, which erupted in northeast Nigeria in 2009 and spread to the west of Chad.
Around 40 soldiers were killed in an attack on a military base in Chad’s Lake region at the end of last month, after which interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby threatened to withdraw the Central African country from a multinational security force.
Chad is an important ally for French and U.S. forces seeking to help fight a 12-year jihadists insurgency in West Africa’s Sahel region.
Military juntas that seized power in recent years in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – whose shared borders have become epicentres of jihadist violence – have turned their backs on the West in favour of Russian support.
(Reporting by Mahamat Ramadane; Writing by Sofia Christensen; editing by Diane Craft)
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