# Boko Haram attack kills at least 23 security personnel in Chad
By IO Digest Desk
On 2026-05-05, Boko Haram militants attacked a military base on the shores of Lake Chad and killed at least 23 security personnel, according to officials in Chad. The assault happened Monday night at Barka Tolorom and was eventually repelled, but it left dozens more soldiers injured.
President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno condemned the attack in a Facebook post and said the group had carried out a cowardly assault on the base. He promised renewed determination to eradicate Boko Haram entirely. The wording of his response reflected how deeply the attacks still cut into national politics in Chad, where the army has spent years trying to push the group back from the lake region.
The base sits in a part of the country that has long been exposed to cross-border militancy. Boko Haram began in northern Nigeria but has spread into the Lake Chad basin and beyond over the past decade. The same waters, islands and marshes that support local livelihoods have also provided hiding places and movement corridors for insurgents.
The United Nations has said the group has killed several thousand people and displaced millions. The DW report also noted that Boko Haram has stepped up kidnappings and attacks on soldiers in recent years, including an October 2024 assault that killed around 40 Chadian troops. That earlier attack triggered a counter-offensive that Deby said he would personally lead for two weeks.
This latest incident therefore fits a pattern rather than standing alone. It is a reminder that the insurgency remains adaptive, even after government operations have claimed gains. The report said the Chadian army announced in February 2025 that Boko Haram had no more sanctuary on Chadian territory, but the attack on Barka Tolorom shows how quickly militants can still strike fixed positions around Lake Chad.
The area is also contested by rival armed groups, including the Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP. That matters because Lake Chad is not a single-front conflict zone but a patchwork of overlapping insurgent, state and local security problems that shift from island to island and road to road.
For Chad, the immediate toll is painful and specific: at least 23 dead, dozens wounded and a military base attacked at night. For the region, it is another sign that the struggle against Boko Haram has not entered a settled phase, no matter how often commanders announce progress.
Deby's vow to keep fighting until the threat is eradicated captures the political pressure that follows these attacks. But it also captures the scale of the challenge. A group that can still hit a base, kill a large number of soldiers and force another round of response remains far from defeated.
