KABUL: (Middle East Press) At least 15 people have been killed and 130 others injured in multiple explosions in the African country of Chad Island.
The blasts took place three female suicide bombers attacked the Chadian island of Koulfoua on Lake Chad on Saturday.
The swampy maze of islands in the border areas between Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria has become one of the main targets of Boko Haram fighters who can find easy cover in the waterways. The militants are based mostly in Nigeria but have become a wider security threat for the region.
“The provisional death toll is 19 dead, including the four kamikazes, and 130 injured,” said state TV.
A U.N. official said that there was an unspecified number of people displaced by Boko Haram-related violence on the island when the attackers struck around midday on a busy market day.
Two of the blasts rang out from the centre of the market and a third in the street as people fled. All of the bombers were female, the security sources added.
Chad extended a state of emergency in the region last month after a double suicide attack that killed 12 people. Dozens of people were killed in multiple bombings in the border town of Baga Sola in October.
But new restrictions, such as bans on motorised canoes aimed at stopping attacks, makes it harder for aid agencies to access the roughly 60,000 displaced people living there.
Lake Chad countries, backed by Benin, have vowed to defeat Boko Haram using forces from an 8,700-strong regional task force which officially become operational in August.
However, security sources say that logistical constraints have caused delays and there are growing signs that national armies are instead acting alone. Cameroon said it conducted a major operation along its long western border with Nigeria, killing 100 militants and freeing 900 people.
