The Chadian armed forces on Tuesday said that 23 soldiers were killed and 26 hurt in an attack by Islamist militant group Boko Haram on a base on the shores of Lake Chad.

Army spokesman Issakha Acheikh Chanane said that the attack late on Monday on the island of Barka Tolorom in Lake Chad was repelled by Chadian forces and that “a significant number of militants were neutralized.

Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno called the attack “cowardly” in a post on Facebook.

“In the face of barbarism, Chad stands firm, united, and unyielding,” the president said.

Boko Haram, which was founded in Nigeria in West Africa, has been carrying out repeated attacks in the neighbouring Central African countries of Chad and Cameroon for years.

The islands in Lake Chad in the common border area of the three countries are now the militia’s main retreat.

The worst attack in Chad occurred in March 2020 on the Bohoma peninsula, where around 100 soldiers were killed. 

Sudan has accused neighbouring Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of orchestrating drone strikes on its main airport, describing the assault as “Direct aggression”.

The international airport, located in the capital, was hit on Monday, along with military installations in the Greater Khartoum area.

Recent drone strikes have shattered a period of relative calm in Khartoum, which came after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) was pushed out by the Sudanese military last year.

Ethiopia has said accusations that it was involved in the airport attack are “Baseless”.

Sudan has recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia for “Consultations” over the attack, Foreign Minister Mohieddin Salem said.

No-one was wounded in the attack, Sudan’s information minister told the Reuters news agency.

Sudan’s army said it had “conclusive evidence” that the drones were launched from Bahir Dar airport in Ethiopia.

Sudanese military officials first accused the RSF of air attacks launched from inside Ethiopian territory in March.

They said they had tracked a drone, identified as Emirati property, entering Sudanese airspace from Ethiopia and eventually shot it down.

A Sudanese army spokesman alleged that they have now connected another drone, launched from the same airport, to Monday’s attack.

The UAE has in the past forcefully rejected claims that it provides military support to the RSF.

The latest attacks came a week after the first direct international commercial flight in three years landed at the airport.

The authorities were forced to announce a 72-hour suspension of operations at the airport following the attacks.

The airport has been a major battleground in the war between the regular army and the RSF, which began in 2023.

In February, Reuters reported that Ethiopia was hosting a camp to train RSF fighters and had upgraded the nearby Asosa airport for drone operations.

It said the move was backed by Ethiopia’s close ally, the United Arab Emirates.

On Monday, witnesses confirmed that they heard blasts and saw smoke rising from an area near the airport.

The attack is reported to have also caused minor damage to an administrative building.

The information ministry said the airport would return to operations after routine safety procedures.

Sudan’s foreign minister alleged that the drones had taken off from Ethiopia, despite Ethiopia being a “brotherly state” to Sudan. He said the UAE and Ethiopia had chosen the “wrong path” and would regret it.

Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Sudan and Ethiopia “share a historic and enduring bond of friendship” and had “refrained from publicising the grave violations of Ethiopia’s territorial integrity and national security committed by some belligerents in the Sudanese civil war”.

The ministry called for dialogue between the warring parties in Sudan.

Since the war in Sudan started, more than 150,000 people have died. Twelve million have fled their homes in what the UN has called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

The three-year civil war has also led to a famine and claims of a genocide in the western Darfur region.

Spain will deploy more than 13,000 police officers to stave off “Multiple” potential threats to Pope Leo XIV’s visit from June 6 to 12, the interior minister said on Monday.

The pope is due to draw huge crowds in the historically deeply Catholic nation when he travels to Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said that the highest level of a special security plan would be activated throughout the visit, the first by a pope to Spain since 2011.

More than 11,000 police officers and 2,200 Civil Guards would be deployed, while the contribution of additional local forces in the northeastern region of Catalonia that includes Barcelona was to be established, Marlaska added.

Marlaska reeled off a list of “multiple” potential threats, including terrorism, “but also radicalism, other movements such as social movements, which may naturally seize the opportunity to make themselves heard”.

After staying in the capital, Leo will inaugurate the newest and tallest tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia Basilica, 100 years since the death of its Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi.

The Catholic Church declared Gaudi “venerable” in 2025 — the first step on the path to sainthood.

The American pope will then travel to the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the northwestern coast of Africa that is a major route for Europe-bound migrants.

Leo is a vocal defender of migrants, an issue which was also dear to his predecessor Pope Francis.

The fact that the visit “takes place in different territories obviously creates greater complexity for ensuring that it unfolds normally”, as all locations are “very different”, Marlaska said.

Simultaneous major events, such as a series of concerts in Madrid by Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, “do not make it easy”, but Spain “has the resources” to secure all the sites, Marlaska said.