N'DJAMENA, March 25 (Reuters) - Boko Haram militants killed
92 Chadian soldiers and wounded 47 more in the deadliest attack
ever on the country's military, President Idriss Deby said late
on Tuesday.
The soldiers were attacked on Monday on the island village
of Boma in the swampy Lake Chad zone in the west of the country,
where the armies of Chad, Nigeria and Niger have been fighting
the Islamist militants for years.
"I have taken part in many operations ... but never in our
history have we lost so many men at one time," Deby said during
a visit to the site on Tuesday.
Footage on state TV showed Deby, who has ruled Chad since
1990 and survived several rebellions and coup attempts, walking
among the charred remains of burned-out vehicles.
The Boko Haram insurgency, which erupted in northeast
Nigeria in 2009, has killed more than 30,000 people and forced
about 2 million to leave their homes.
Further afield in Mali, Burkina Faso and western Niger, al
Qaeda and Islamic State-linked militants are expanding their
presence and have killed hundreds of troops over the last six
months.