New air strikes by its armed forces Chadin the context of a counterattack against jihadists of the organization Boko Haramhad the effect of killing and injuring many of its members, President Maamat Idris Debi Itno assured yesterday Thursday.

“We carried out airstrikes that caused many dead and injured,” said the military-clad head of state from Lake Chad province.

President Deby ordered and is “personally” leading an operation against Boko Haram in retaliation for a jihadist attack on a position of his country’s armed forces in Barkaram, an island in Kaya prefecture, near the border with Nigerialast month. The death toll of this jihadist attack was “around 40 dead”, according to the authorities.

“Purely military”, and aimed at restoring “security”, the operation began around mid-October with the aim of guaranteeing “the security of our peaceful population”, by “pursuing” and “eliminating” elements of Boko Haram, assured last week Abderrahim Birem Amid, the transitional prime minister of Chad.

To counter the action of jihadist organizations, four countries in the region formed in July 2015 a multinational joint force with 5,800 members, with a mandate to operate in the Lake Chad basin.

The vast expanse of water and wetlands lies between Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad and is dotted with islands and islets that harbor fighters from Boko Haram and the rival Islamic State in West Africa (ISW), which was born when the first split.

Mr. Deby criticized the fact that his country received “no support” from its neighbors.

He underlined that his army is “intervening in the protection of civilians and the national territory, insisting that Chad “will continue to fight against terrorism”.

Members of the Chadian armed forces are often targeted by Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region.

The Boko Haram insurgency, which has proven very difficult to contain, broke out in 2009 in Nigeria. It has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people, forced two million more to flee their homes and spread to neighboring states.

In March 2020, the group launched a bloody attack against another military base in the Lake Chad region. The authorities had then announced around 100 dead. These were the heaviest losses ever suffered by the Chadian army.

Marshal Idriss Deby, who ruled Chad with an iron fist for thirty years, had a habit of commanding his army in the field. After being killed by rebel fire at the front, his son Maamat Idriss Deby, who was elected president, had been named by the military as interim head of state, heading a junta of fifteen generals, in 2021.