Chadian forces kill 70 jihadists around Lake Chad

The Chadian army had already reported about 70 dead on Sunday. After bombardments by the MJTF on the Nigerian shore of the lake, the terrorists fled to the Chadian side, where 70 of them were subsequently killed by Chadian troops, explained MJTF spokesman Abubakar Abdullahi. The spokesman did not say to which terrorist group they belong.

The attacks destroyed five camps and ammunition depots, as well as eight vehicles rigged with explosives intended for suicide attacks.

Several suicide bombings in the Nigerian town of Gwoza, near the border with Cameroon, killed 32 civilians on Saturday. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said afterwards that the attacks were “clear evidence of the pressure on the terrorists and the successes achieved in weakening their offensive capacity”.

In recent weeks, the Nigerian military has stepped up airstrikes on terrorist camps along Lake Chad, which have responded with deadly attacks on fishermen.

The multinational force initially targeted cross-border crime, but the rise of jihadist groups over the past 15 years has shifted the focus to counter-terrorism operations.

In 2009, Boko Haram emerged in northeastern Nigeria, but other Islamist terrorist groups have also emerged in the wider region in recent years. Violence by these groups has left at least 40,000 dead, and in Nigeria, some 2 million people have been displaced.