break the Islamist insurgents' grip on the town bordering Cameroon, Chadian military sources said.
Chad has deployed some 2,500 troops as part of a regional
effort to take on the militant group that has waged a bloody insurgency
to create an Islamist emirate in northern Nigeria, which killed an
estimated 10,000 people last year.
The fighting in Gambaru, south of Lake Chad, came as
hundreds of Chadian soldiers massed near the town of Diffa in Niger,
near Nigerian border northwest of the lake, military sources in Niger
said.
"Our
troops entered Nigeria this morning. The combat is ongoing," one of the
sources at Chad's army headquarters told Reuters about the fighting in
Gambaru.
The attack followed days of intense
fighting between Chadian forces in Cameroon and Boko Haram fighters who
had launched attacks across a border bridge, during which Chad's air
force carried out strikes on insurgent positions, Chadian and Cameroon
military sources told Reuters.
The road from Gambaru to Fotokol in Cameroon is one of
Boko Haram's major supply routes. It has been hampered since Cameroon
deployed special forces to the area in mid-2014, leading to fierce
fighting in the area.
The Nigerian government said on Monday that Gambaru alongside
several other towns in the region including Mafa, Mallam Fatori, Abadam
and Marte had been liberated from Boko Haram.
Nigeria's Defence Ministry spokesman Brigadier General
Chris Olukolade told Reuters via a text message that it was the Nigerian
forces that planned and were driving the offensive against Boko Haram.
"The Chadians are...working in concert with the overall
plan for an all round move against the terrorists as agreed," Olukolade
said.
In a
further sign of mounting international action to combat the militant
group, France said on Tuesday that French military aircraft are carrying
out surveillance missions to help countries bordering Nigeria tackle
Boko Haram.
The
Sunni jihadist group has become the main security threat to the
stability of Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer, and
increasingly threatens its neighbors.
The African Union (AU) has authorized a force of 7,500
troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin to fight the
militants.
Chad's 2,500 troops will form part of the force. Niger army sources told
Reuters on Tuesday that several hundred Chadian troops are moving
against the militants on the Niger side of the border with Nigeria.
"An important contingent of Chadian troops equipped with
tanks and artillery have arrived in the Diffa region in the fight
against Boko Haram," one army source said, requesting not to be named.
Another said there were at least 300 of them in the town of Bosso, on
the Nigerian border.
Source:Reuters
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