Nine Chadian soldiers were Wednesday killed in clashes with Islamist Boko Haram militants, in Gamboru, Borno State, while scores of the insurgents also dited, a military official said.
The fighting according to military officiql lasted for about an hour, General Ahmat Dari, commander of the Chadian contingent, said in remarks broadcast on state radio in Chads capital, NDjamena. The militants are in disarray, Dari told bloomerg.
The Chadian troops seized 10 vehicles and about 100 motorycles after the clashes, Brigadier-General Adam Abdoulaye said in separate comments broadcast on the radio.
Chad deployed its military last month to help fight Boko Haram, which has escalated its violent campaign to impose Islamic law in Nigeria, Africas biggest economy and top oil producer. The group, which has declared a caliphate the size of Belgium in northeastern Nigeria, killed more than 4,700 people last year, double the number in 2013, Bath, U.K.-based risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft estimates.
Soldiers from Chad also liberated the Nigerian towns of Baga, Dikwa, Malam Fatori, Damasak, Ngala and parts of Bama in the past four days, according to a Nigerian militia group.
African leaders agreed last month to set up a task force of 7,500 soldiers from Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin to counter Boko Haram. The force will have its headquarters in NDjamena and a one-year mandate starting this month, Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama said on 3 January 2015.
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