DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Chad’s presidency said Monday that unidentified attackers killed at least 40 soldiers in a nightly attack on a military base in the country’s west.

Minister Mahamat Deby Itno According to the statement made by the Presidency, he visited the base on Barkaram island in the Lake Chad region early in the morning and announced that a military operation was launched to pursue the attackers.

Chad has long struggled with insurgency in the country’s west, near the Nigerian border.

It is not yet known who was behind the latest attack, but the Boko Haram militant group was held responsible by the government for previous attacks in the region.

An attack blamed on the government in March Boko Haram killed 7 soldiersFear of violence in the Lake Chad region has been revived following a period of peace following the Chadian army’s successful operation launched in 2020 to destroy the extremist group’s bases there. Schools, mosques and churches have reopened and humanitarian organizations have returned.

Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency against Western education more than a decade ago, is trying to establish Islamic law in northeastern Nigeria. The rebellion also spread to its West African neighbors such as Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Chad, a country with a population of approximately 18 million, is affected by political turmoil before and after. controversial presidential election this resulted in Deby Itno’s victory. He ruled the country as interim president during the military rule following his father’s death in 2021.