YAOUNDE, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-three Chadian soldiers were killed and 26 others injured after Boko Haram militants raided a military base in the Lake Chad region, Chadian army spokesman Issakha Acheikh Chanane said on Tuesday.

The militants launched the assault on the Barka Tolorom island base in Lake Chad province at about 10 p.m. local time on Monday, Chanane said in a statement.

He noted that Chadian forces responded to the attack, killing a "significant number" of Boko Haram militants and seizing their weapons.

"I express the nation's deepest condolences, and to the wounded soldiers receiving care, I wish a speedy recovery," Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said in a message posted on his social media platforms after visiting the injured soldiers in a hospital.

He added that Chad remains "united and unwavering" in the face of the attack.

The militant group Boko Haram has been active in the Lake Chad Basin for more than a decade, inflicting heavy human and material losses across the region. ■