At least 42 Daesh militants killed near Lake Chad - troops

West African troops killed 42 suspected Daesh terrorists in a battle in the Lake Chad region on June 21, the heaviest death toll suffered by the militants in the last six months, a regional military task force said in a statement.

The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) – comprising troops from countries bordering the lake – said one of its soldiers was killed and 10 others were wounded.

The MNJTF said in a statement issued on Saturday that "42 terrorists (were) neutralised" during fighting on and around a Lake Chad island called Doron Naira. 

It said it meant it had "inflicted the heaviest loss in six months on ISWAP."

In an apparent reference to the same clashes, Daesh said its militants had killed 15 soldiers in fighting at Garno, a town in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state near Lake Chad. 

It said a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device but did not refer to any of its fighters having been killed.

Daesh insurgency 

Islamic State [Daesh] West Africa Province (ISWAP) was formed in 2016 when a faction of Nigerian radical militant group Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Daesh. 

The insurgency has affected countries that border Lake Chad – Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, as well as islands on the lake itself.

The insurgency, which began in northeast Nigeria, has killed more than 30,000 people and displaced about two million since 2009.