08:50 – Chad: 18 dead in Boko Haram attack on Lake Chad

Eighteen people were killed Thursday night on the Chadian side of Lake Chad by men identified as belonging to the jihadist group Boko Haram, said Sunday a security source. Boko Haram elements attacked a village south of Daboua ", a sub-prefecture of Lake Chad near Niger," Thursday around 9:00 pm (8:00 pm GMT) and "slaughtered 18 people, wounded two others and kidnapped 10 women" , told AFP the same source. On Saturday night, the Nigerian army announced that it had killed "ten terrorists", after repelling an attack by Boko Haram on one of its positions at about 11:00 pm in southeastern Niger. The last major attack of Boko Haram on the Chadian side of Lake Chad dates back to May 2018 when 6 people, mainly police, were killed in the locality of Gabalami, not far from Kinbadarom, on an island of Lake Chad. Although Chad is relatively less affected by the jihadist group than its neighbor Nigeria, there has been a resurgence of violence perpetrated by Boko Haram in Chad in recent months, after a relative lull. The Chadian army, within a mixed multinational force (GFM) that brings together forces from the subregion, and vigilance committees are trying to repel the Boko Haram jihadists who began their breakthrough in Chad in 2015. The The group from Nigeria strikes all the countries of the Lake Chad zone (Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger) where it commits deadly attacks and attacks against the police, and carries out kidnappings of young girls. Since 2009, more than 20,000 people have died in Nigeria alone, victims of Boko Haram's actions and the conflict with the army. About 10.7 million people depend on humanitarian aid to survive in the Lake Chad region, where one of the most severe crises in the world is characterized by the displacement of thousands of people and food insecurity, according to the UN Humanitarian Office (Ocha). (Belga)

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