The president claims that 40 soldiers died in the attack on a military base in Chad

DAKAR, Senegal — Unidentified attackers killed at least 40 soldiers in an overnight attack on a military base in the west of the country, Chad’s president said on Monday.

President Mahamat Deby Itno According to a statement from the presidency, he visited the base in Barkaram, an island in the Lake Chad region, early in the morning and announced the launch of a military operation to track down the attackers.

Chad has long been fighting an insurgency in the west of the country, near the border with Nigeria.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the latest attack, but the government blamed previous attacks in the region on the militant group Boko Haram.

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

Boko Haram, which began an insurgency against Western education more than a decade ago, is seeking to establish Islamic law in northeastern Nigeria. The insurgency spread to West Africa’s neighbors, including Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Chad, a country of almost 18 million people, has been reeling before and after political turmoil controversial presidential elections which resulted in Deby Itno winning. He led the country as interim president during the military rule that followed his father’s death in 2021.