Chadian troops kill 33 Boko Haram fighters

N’DJAMENA (Reuters) – Chad said on Friday that its army killed at least 33 militants from Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamist group and lost three soldiers in heavy fighting on an island on Lake Chad earlier this week.

“They tried to attack us on Choua Island but we pushed them back,” Colonel Azem Bermandoa, a spokesman for Chad’s army, told Reuters, referring to an island that sits near to where the borders of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon meet.

News of the clash came as Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as Nigeria’s new president and regional armies are working to stamp out Boko Haram’s insurgency.