Chad declares three days of national mourning after Boko Haram attack

Chad declared three days of national mourning after a new attack by Boko Haram jihadists Wednesday killed two generals in the volatile Lake Chad Basin.

On Monday evening, an attack on the Barka Tolorom military base on the Chadian shore of Lake Chad left at least 24 soldiers dead and several wounded, according to a military source.

On Wednesday afternoon, security and defence force boats patrolling the lake’s island area "fell into a Boko Haram ambush," an officer from the General Staff told AFP, adding that two generals were killed.

The government in a statement declared national mourning "from Wednesday, May 6 at midnight to Saturday, May 9 at midnight...in memory of the martyrs who fell on the field of honour during the attacks by terrorist groups that occurred on May 4 and 6."

During this period, flags will be flown at half-mast and all festive activities are banned throughout the country, it said.

"We will continue the fight with renewed determination until this threat is completely eradicated," Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said after Monday's attack.

Chadian soldiers are frequently targeted by Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region, a vast expanse of water and marshland dotted with islands, located between Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad.

Since 2009, it has become a jihadist stronghold sheltering both Boko Haram fighters and its rival, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Recent months have seen a resurgence in attacks by JAS, one of the Boko Haram factions, involving kidnappings and assaults on forward security pos itions.

In October 2024, a deadly Boko Haram attack on a military base in the Lake Chad basin left around 40 Chadian soldiers dead.

In response, President Deby launched Operation Haskanite to "destroy Boko Haram’s capacity to cause harm."

The Chadian army completed its counteroffensive in February 2025, asserting that the jihadist group no longer had "any sanctuary on Chadian territory."