Dakar — Security officials reported that a triple suicide bombing on the Lake Chad island of Koulfoua killed around 27 people and injured 90.
Paul Manga, spokesman from the Chad police, stated that all the bombers were female, and they’re suspected to be from the Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamic terror group. According Reuters, the sources said that the attacks happened on market day.
Since the region has been regularly attack by the extremists in the past, Boko Haram is suspected to be the responsible for the bombings. Chad had already declared and extended a state of emergency last month due to the constant attacks, including a double suicide bombing that claimed the life of 12 people.
Other five simultaneous suicide bombings were carried out back in October. About 36 people were killed and 50 wounded, some of them Nigerians in the Baga Sola village, where they moved hoping to escape the attacks of the extremists.
In fact, going by the information provided by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 50,000 people had fled their homes to seek refuge on the island since the end of July.
During the last 6 years, Boko Haram has managed to take the life of 20,000 people, attacking the areas of Niger, Cameroon and Chad, where troops are working to take down the Islamic militants — Nigeria and Chad’s officials were able to banish Boko Haram extremists from the northeastern part of the former country.
Just last week, Nigerian, Chadian, Cameroonian and Beninese forces had arrested a hundred Boko Haram members, killed another hundred and freed 900 hostages in a large rescue operation. The recent bombings coincide with the claims of the Nigerian intelligence agency, which reported to have arrested nine extremists last month believed to be Boko Haram militants who were planning to attack the country’s capital. The U.S. Embassy warned today about possible attacks to hotels frequently visited by westerners.
According Nigeria’s Department of State Security, one of the militants arrested was monitoring one of those hotels.
Source: Washington Post