Chad’s military carried out air strikes that resulted in “many dead and wounded” among Boko Haram jihadists, according to President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno on Thursday.

Speaking in the Lake Chad region, Deby confirmed the strikes targeted Boko Haram positions, but he did not provide exact casualty figures. He added that he had personally overseen the counter-attack, which came after a Boko Haram assault on Chadian forces last month near the Nigerian border.

Chad’s government had vowed to “obliterate” Boko Haram when it launched the operation in late October, following a deadly raid by the jihadists on a military garrison that killed around 40 people and wounded many others. Interim Prime Minister Abderahim Bireme Hamid stated the operation aimed to protect civilians while dismantling Boko Haram and its affiliates’ ability to carry out attacks.

The Lake Chad region, with its vast network of islands and swamps, has long served as a stronghold for Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), both of which frequently target the military and civilians. To combat the jihadist groups, Chad, along with Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon, formed a multinational force of around 8,500 troops in 2015.

Boko Haram, which began its insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, has since caused the deaths of more than 40,000 people and spread its violence across the region. Chad’s military faced its heaviest losses in the area in March 2020, when a Boko Haram raid on the Bohoma peninsula resulted in the deaths of nearly 100 Chadian soldiers.