Seventy-one Chadian soldiers have so far been killed and 416 injured in just about two months since the country volunteered to help Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents, the Chadian Army said on Friday.

Alongside Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger, Chad is part of the multinational regional force formed to battle the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists.

Speaking to journalists on Friday in N’Djamena, the Chadian capital, the country’s army chief, Brahim Seid, called the soldiers “valiant” and said they had given their lives for the “just and noble cause of bringing peace and security” to the troubled region.

Following Boko Haram’s success in Nigeria, the sect extended its attacks to the neighbouring countries of Chad and Cameroon, virtually forcing the countries to find a collective solution to the menace.

The Nigerian military has been criticised in both local and foreign media for failing to deal with the insurgency decisively, allowing it to gain more ground and wreak more havoc on innocent civilians, killing thousands and causing several hundreds of thousands to seek refuge both within and outside the country.

Chad has been credited with leading the fight against Boko Haram, something the Nigerian military hierarchy has been at pains to deny, and the release of the casualty figures shows the level of involvement of the Chadian troops.