DAKAR, Senegal 

Chad has deployed soldiers to Niger and Nigeria in a counteroffensive against the Boko Haram terrorist group. 

Speaking Tuesday on national television, Defense Minister Mahamat Abali Salah said that following an attack on a military base in Boma in Lac province on March 23 which killed 98 Chadian soldiers, “Operation Boma's Wrath" was launched Saturday.

Salah said that as part of the operation, they deployed five companies of soldiers to Niger and Nigeria with the approval of these countries.

"Our purpose is to clear the area around Lake Chad from terror. We will continue to share the details of the operation," he added.

On Friday, the government declared Lac province a war zone.

The attack on March 23 also left 50 people wounded, including civilians.

Boko Haram launched a bloody insurgency in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria but later spread its atrocities to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, which prompted a military response.

More than 30,000 people have been killed and nearly 3 million displaced in a decade of Boko Haram terrorist activities in Nigeria, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

*Writing by Firdevs Bulut