Boko Haram militants killed at least 10 Chadian soldiers on Tuesday in an attack on a military unit in Lake Chad province near the Nigerian border, the Chadian government said in a statement.
The unit was sent as a precursor to the establishment of an army post on the island of Buka Tullorom, between the villages of Ngoubua and Kaiga, where Boko Haram has carried out several offensives in recent years.
The militants attacked early Tuesday morning, killing about 10 people and injuring several others, the statement said.
The Boko Haram insurgency that erupted in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 has killed more than 350,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes.
The group spread to the swampy area of Lake Chad in the west of the country, where the armies of Chad, Nigeria and Niger have been fighting Islamist militants for years.
Despite efforts to push them back, Boko Haram militants killed 92 Chadian soldiers and wounded 47 others in March 2020.
Chad’s transitional government has pledged to more than double its army by the end of 2022 to combat security challenges, including threats from al-Qaeda and Islamic State-linked militants.
The central African country’s massive army is also battling armed rebels along its northern border with Libya.
The transitional military government was formed after President Idriss Deby was killed while visiting troops fighting rebels in Libya in April 2021.
His son, Mahamat Idris Debi, seized power after his father’s death.
