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UPDATE 1-Boko Haram militants kill nearly 100 Chadian soldiers in attack

Published 25/03/2020, 12:55
© Reuters.

(Adds updated death toll, details and background)
N'DJAMENA, March 25 (Reuters) - Boko Haram militants killed
nearly 100 Chadian soldiers and wounded dozens more in what
President Idriss Deby described as the deadliest attack ever on
the country's military.
The soldiers were ambushed on Monday in 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.
Deby gave an initial death toll of 92 and 47 wounded. Three
military sources told Reuters on Wednesday that the number of
dead had risen to 98.
Footage on state TV showed Deby, who has ruled Chad since
1990 and survived several rebellions and coup attempts, wearing
a protective mask and walking with troops among the charred
remains of burned-out pick-up trucks.
The Boko Haram insurgency, which erupted in northeast
Nigeria in 2009, has killed more than 30,000 people and forced
about 2 million to flee 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.
Deby has deployed troops to counter these groups in the
Sahel and Lake Chad region.
Chad's armed forces are among the most respected in the
region - a reputation forged during decades of war and
rebellions, and honed in a 2013 campaign against al Qaeda-linked
Islamists in the deserts of northern Mali.
Chad is one of France's closest allies in its Operation
Barkhane regional counter-terrorism push.

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