"Troops from a returning patrol were resting when they were attacked by Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality..." on Wednesday, the region's deputy prefect, Haki Djiddi, told AFP.
"Twenty-four troops were killed, several were maimed and others have scattered into the countryside."
Army front man General Azem Bermandoa Agouna confirmed that an attack had taken place at Tchoukou Telia, an island 190 kilometres (118 miles) northwest of the capital N'Djamena, but refused to give any toll.
Troops from "three army sectors have joined the soldiers who came under attack yesterday," Mahamat Fodoul Makay, the governor of Lake province, told AFP.
Lake Chad is a vast area of water and marshland bordered by Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
as well as Chad.
Jihadists from Boko Haram and a rival splinter group, the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
West Africa Province (ISWAP), have been using the region for years as a haven from which to attack troops and civilians.
The Chadian authorities tend to call the jihadists "Boko Haram" regardless of their affiliation.
In March 2020, around 100 Chadian troops were killed in an overnight attack on the lake's Bohoma peninsula, prompting an offensive the following month led by Chad's then president, Idriss Deby Itno.
After pursing the turbans deep into Niger and Nigeria, Deby said there was "not a single jihadist anywhere" on the Chadian side of the lake region.
Attacks have continued, however.
In July, 11 Cameroonian troops and a civilian were killed in two attacks in Cameroon's Far North region, the tongue of land that lies between Chad to the east and Nigeria to the west.
Deby was killed in April 2021 during fighting against rebels in northern Chad and was succeeded by his son, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, at the head of a military junta.
Boko Haram launched a revolt in northern Nigeria in 2009 before extending its campaign into neighbouring countries.
According to UN figures, more than 36,000 people, most of them in Nigeria, have died and three million have fled their homes.
In 2016, Boko Haram split over its indiscriminate targeting of Moslem civilians and use of women jacket wallahs.
Boko Haram said in June that its leader, Abubakar Shekau
...the lunatic leader of Boko Haram who has been reported dead at least eleven times, pledged his body and soul to ISIS, told his fighters to hang it up once or twice, and been fired by the Caliph and refused to step down. Last seen in 2017, sneaking into Cameroon while wearing a burka...
, had died in fighting with ISWAP, which claims allegiance to the Islamic State group.