ZCZC
BFF-24
CHAD-NIGER-UNREST LEAD
18 killed in Boko Haram attack in Chad: military source
N’DJAMENA, July 22, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Eighteen people have been killed in
an attack by suspected Boko Haram jihadists in the Lake Chad region, a
Chadian military source said Sunday.
“Boko Haram elements attacked a village south of Daboua,” not far from
Chad’s border with Niger, at around 9:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Thursday, the
military source said.
The assailants “cut the throats of 18 people, wounded two others and
kidnapped 10 women”.
Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency has devastated the region since it took
up arms in 2009 in Nigeria, leaving at least 20,000 people dead, displacing
more than two million others and triggering a humanitarian crisis.
Chad, Cameroon and Niger have all joined the military effort by Nigeria to
crush Boko Haram.
Chad has seen a recent increase in attacks by the group.
In May, six people were killed, including four government officials and a
soldier, in a Boko Haram attack on a Chadian army checkpoint on an island in
Lake Chad.
Niger’s army said Saturday it killed “ten terrorists” after one of its
military positions in the southwest of the country was attacked by Boko
Haram.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1252 hrs