Chadian soldiers repelled an attack by Boko Haram in a Nigerian border town on Wednesday, killing 13 of the militants, Reuters news agency reported Chad’s army as saying. The army said it lost a soldier, too.

Boko Haram militants attacked Chadian positions before dawn in Gambaru, a town on Nigeria’s northeast border with Cameroon, the military said in a statement.

Chadian forces apparently were prepared for the attack. “We were waiting,” a military source told Reuters. “The battle didn’t last long. They fled.”

The army reported 11 Chadian soldiers were wounded and three out of 14 Boko Haram vehicles were destroyed.

The casualties have not been verified independently.

Chad sent troops into Gambaru last week as part of the regional offensive against Boko Haram. Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin have pledged to deploy up to 8,700 troops for a special force to fight the militants.

Nigerian troops have been fighting Boko Haram since the group launched its insurgency in 2009. 

The militants have killed thousands of civilians, displaced nearly a million others, and seized dozens of villages in northeastern Nigeria for what their leader says will be an Islamic caliphate.

The group’s fighters clashed with troops from Chad, Cameroon and Niger over the past week, in battles raging along Nigeria’s borders.

Election concerns

The violence and unrest prompted Nigeria’s electoral commission to postpone presidential and parliamentary elections by six weeks to March 28.

Nigeria’s military on Wednesday promised to stay out of the political fray after the electoral commission’s chairman, Attahiru Jega, revealed he’d received a letter from the national security adviser’s office warning his safety couldn’t be assured unless the February 14 elections were delayed, Reuters reported.

“It is important to reassure Nigerians that the military will remain professional, apolitical and nonpartisan in all operates” related to elections, Major-General Chris Olukolade, the defense spokesman, said in a statement.
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