President of Chad Mahamat Deby Itno. File | Photo Credit: AP

In the statement made by the Chadian presidency on Monday, October 28, 2024, it was said: “Unidentified attackers killed at least 40 soldiers in a night attack on a military base in the west of the country.”

According to the statement made by the Presidency, President Mahamat Deby Itno visited the base on Barkaram island in the Lake Chad region early in the morning and announced that a military operation was launched to pursue the attackers.

Chad has long struggled with insurgency in the country’s west, near the Nigerian border.

It was not yet known who was behind the latest attack, but the Boko Haram militant group was held responsible by the Government for previous attacks in the region.

In March, seven soldiers were killed in an attack that the government blamed on Boko Haram, reviving fears of violence in the Lake Chad region after a period of peace following the Chadian army’s successful 2020 operation to destroy the extremist group’s bases there. Schools, mosques and churches have reopened and humanitarian organizations have returned.

Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency against Western education more than a decade ago, is trying to establish Islamic law in northeastern Nigeria. The rebellion also spread to its West African neighbors such as Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Chad, a country with a population of approximately 18 million, is under the influence of political turmoil before and after the controversial presidential election that resulted in the victory of Deby Itno. He ruled the country as interim president during the military rule following his father’s death in 2021.