Chad said on Thursday its forces had killed 117 Boko Haram insurgents during a two-week military campaign aimed at clearing islands on Lake Chad used by the militants as hideouts and bases to launch attacks.
“We killed 117 Boko Haram fighters during the two-week operation. We lost two men and several wounded,” Colonel Azem Bermandoa, spokesman for the Chadian Army, said. “We destroyed their boats and seized various weapons during the operation,” Reuters reported.
Chad has deployed thousands of soldiers alongside troops from neighbors Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger to tackle the militant group whose six-year insurgency has killed thousands.
This is while Nigeria’s Army said on Thursday it rescued 71 girls and women in firefights that killed several Boko Haram militants in the country’s northeast.
Army spokesman Colonel IT Gusau said on Thursday 12 people were rescued on Wednesday and 59 on Thursday from villages about 40 km from Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast.
“During the operation, a number of terrorists were killed,” said Gusau, adding that a total of 29 women, 25 children, and five elderly men were part of those freed.
Hundreds of captives were freed in March when Nigeria’s military declared it had seized back all towns held by Boko Haram.
Boko Haram, which calls itself the Islamic State’s West Africa Province since pledging allegiance to the militant group that controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, has stepped up attacks in countries around the lake in recent months in response to a regional offensive.
