Boko Haram extremists have killed at least 92 Chadian troops in what is being called the deadliest raid ever.
“We lost 92 of our soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers,” Chad President Idriss Deby said of the attack overnight on Sunday in Boma. “It’s the first time we have lost so many men.”
Reports say that the attack on soldiers on the Boma peninsula lasted for at least seven hours. The government sent reinforcements in, but they too were hit by the extremists. The incident occurred on Sunday night through Monday, in the village of Boma, which is located in the Lac province near the border with Nigeria and Niger.
“Never in our history have we lost so many men at one time,” Deby said.
Nigeria also suffered an attack at the hands of Boko Haram. There are reports that the extremist group killed as many as 50 in a separate targeted attack in Yobe state in the north of the country.
According to the UN, Boko Haram’s insurgency has killed at least 36,000 people and displaced as many as two million in northeastern Nigeria since it began—although some reports say the number is much closer to 3 million.
In a statement, Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari condemned the attack and said he was “deeply saddened” over the loss of the troops.
“The Nigerian military suffered some casualties in the unfortunate attack,” a Nigerian army spokesman, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, said Tuesday in a statement released to the press.
Last month at least 30 people were killed in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno region after suspected Boko Haram set fire to several trucks carrying passengers.
