Chad Declares National Mourning After Deadly Boko Haram Ambush
Al Jazeera Staff
Chad has declared three days of national mourning after a Boko Haram ambush near Lake Chad killed two generals. The attack follows another assault on a military base that left at least 24 soldiers dead. The Lake Chad region has seen increased militant activity in recent months.
Chad has declared three days of national mourning after a Boko Haram ambush in the Lake Chad region on Wednesday (May 7, 2025) killed two generals.
Two days earlier, an attack by the group on the Barka Tolorom military base near Lake Chad killed at least 24 soldiers. The Chadian military said a "substantial number" of attackers were also eliminated.
The Chadian government stated: "From midnight Wednesday, May 7 to midnight Saturday, May 10 ... in memory of the martyrs who died with honor in the attacks by terrorist groups that occurred on May 4 and 6."
The Lake Chad region – a vast, swampy body of water with many remote islands, straddling the borders of Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad – has seen increased activity by the JAS faction of Boko Haram in recent months, including kidnappings and attacks on security forces.
The islands and swamps of Lake Chad also serve as a hideout for Boko Haram's rival hardline breakaway faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
In October 2024, a Boko Haram attack on a military base in the Lake Chad region killed about 40 Chadian soldiers.
President Mahamat Deby responded with a counteroffensive aimed at "destroying Boko Haram's capacity to cause harm." When the operation ended in February 2025, the military declared that Boko Haram "no longer has any hideout on Chadian territory," but attacks on security forces have continued.
The landlocked Central African nation has faced years of instability from insurgencies, armed groups and coups, along with a stagnant economy that ranks among the poorest in Africa.
