Ten Nigerian soldiers were injured and “several dozen” fighters from the jihadist group Boko Haram were killed in fighting in the Nigerian part of Lake Chad (southeast) on Tuesday, according to a government press release.
According to Nigeria's defense ministry, the 10 soldiers were injured in fighting with Boko Haram elements who attacked a special intervention battalion positioned at N Airport at around 1:50 a.m. (0050 GMT) on Tuesday. 'Guigmi, garrison town in the Diffa Region near Nigeria.
After fighting that lasted “approximately twenty minutes,” soldiers offered “fierce resistance” and “driven” the attackers “toward the shores of Lake Chad,” which stretches between Niger, Nigeria and Chad, according to a statement released Tuesday Ministry press release evening.
A pursuit initiated with “assistance from air vectors” made it possible to locate the attackers, “who boarded ten canoes,” on Lake Chad.
“Several dozen terrorists” were “neutralized (killed)” and “all canoes destroyed” by “surgical” air strikes, the press release said.
These are the most violent incidents between the army and jihadists after several months of calm in this region, which has been the scene of attacks since 2015 by the Nigerian-born Boko Haram group and the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap), its opposition branch.
One of the last fatal incidents dates back to June 2023: seven soldiers were killed in a mine explosion in Chétima Wangou, near the city of Diffa, the regional capital.
According to regional authorities, there are thousands of internally displaced people and Nigerian refugees in this region who rely on humanitarian organizations and local populations and are facing severe food shortages due to poor harvests caused by drought.
Niger, which has been run by a military regime since a coup on July 26, 2023, has also faced the deadly actions of jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) in the West's borders from Mali and Burkina Faso.