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Boko Haram militants kill 23 soldiers in an attack on a military post, Chad says

N’DJAMENA, Chad (AP) — Boko Haram militants have killed 23 soldiers in an attack on a military post in the Lake Chad region, Chad’s armed forces said Tuesday.

The region has long been threatened by the Nigeria-based Boko Haram militant group, which is known for carrying out attacks in neighboring countries.

Chad’s military said another 26 soldiers were injured in Monday night’s attack on Barka Tolorom island. In a statement, it said “a significant number of sect members were neutralized” and the attackers eventually were repelled.

President Mahamat Idriss Deby in a separate statement called the attack “cowardly.”

A number of armed groups compete in the resource-rich, four-country Lake Chad region to fund their operations by imposing what they call taxes on local communities.

Boko Haram in the past decade and a half has killed several thousand people and displaced millions, according to the United Nations, and continues to carry out operations across parts of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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