Boko Haram militants have carried out their first attack on Chadian soil, weeks after the country’s soldiers crossed into Nigeria in pursuit of the terrorists.

Multiple reports said militants suspected to be members of the group struck at a village near Lake Chad overnight, killing several residents and a local chief before they were repelled by security forces.

They militants crossed Lake Chad in four motorboats and attacked a village, an army spokesman told the BBC.

Chad is part of a multinational force fighting Boko Haram. The coalition also has Niger, Cameroun and Benin.

The BBC quoted Colonel Azem Bermandoua Agouna of the Chadian military as saying that the militants had killed one soldier and wounded a further four in the village of Ngouboua.

He said two Boko Haram militants were killed and five injured.

Residents put the number of attackers at around 30 and said they torched two-thirds of the village’s homes.

The BBC said Chadian military aircraft carried out air strikes against the militants in response, destroying their vessels.

The group has attacked Cameroun and Niger lately, in addition to Nigeria where it is based.

The attack on Chad on Friday was the group’s first there, and appeared designed to demonstrate Boko Haram’s reach, and apparently in fulfilment of its leader, Abubakar Shekau’s recent threat against Chad and Niger.