More than 50 Boko Haram fighters have been killed in an attack on a multi-national force in northeastern Nigeria, a military spokesperson said Wednesday.

Two Chadian soldiers belonging to the Multinational Joint Task Force (MMF), an anti-Boko Haram force combining soldiers from Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria, died in the assault at Cross Kauwa on Tuesday, Colonel Azem Bermandoa said. Eleven other soldiers were injured.

“Fifty-two members of Boko Haram have been killed. Chadian forces have recovered a vehicle equipped with a heavy weapon and several small arms,” Bermandoa said.

A report published by Nigerian newspaper The Nation quoted the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF ) as saying on Wednesday that 39 Boko Haram terrorists have been killed as its troops engaged the terrorists at the fringes of lake Chad.

Boko Haram’s nearly 10-year insurgency has its epicenter in northeast Nigeria but has spilled over into Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

It has left more than 27,000 people dead and about 1.8 million others homeless. In late February, more than 500 Chadian soldiers entered Nigeria to aid the Nigerian army in the fight against the militant group.

On Sunday night, seven Chadian soldiers were also killed in a Boko Haram attack in the town of Bouhama in Chad.

Source: AFP