■ Female suicide bomber kills 8 in Maiduguri
FROM TIMOTHY OLANREWAJU, MAIDUGURI, WITH AGENCY REPORT
No fewer than 117 Boko Haram fighters have been killed in an operation against insurgents holed up on the islands of Lake Chad, the Chadian army said in a statement Friday.
The insurgents suffered the loss on a day a female suicide bomber suspected to be a member of the sect killed at least eight people in a market in Maiduguri, Borno state.
“117 terrorists have been killed, two Chadian soldiers died and two others were wounded” in the operation against the Nigeria-based movement, which began two weeks ago, Chadian army spokesman Colonel Azem Bermendoa Agouna said.
“For two weeks, Boko Haram terrorists have been trying to infiltrate our islands on Lake Chad to carry out attacks on peaceful citizens,” Azem said, adding that military operations were ongoing.
Lake Chad is a strategic region where the borders of Chad and northeast Nigeria converge with those of Cameroon and Niger, further north.
Boko Haram has carried out raids and suicide bombings in all four countries, which have formed a military alliance along with Benin republic to tackle the movement.
“Our armed forces and security forces have launched a vast offensive to dig out and neutralise these terrorists on these islands,” Azem said.
No immediate confirmation of the death toll could be gotten from independent sources.
“Several boats have been destroyed and several weapons of different calibres have been recovered,” added the colonel, who specified that the operation had notably targeted the island villages of Koungya, Merikouta, Choua and Blarigui.
“The sweep continues and the definitive toll will be released later,” the spokesman said.
About 1,000 Chadian soldiers have been deployed in the area of Lake Chad “to occupy all the islands and neutralise Boko Haram”, a security source said. Chad’s government urged local villagers to leave before the offensive started.
Boko Haram forces, who have killed some 15,000 people since their insurgency began in 2009, use the Lake Chad islands to fall back after coming under heavy attack in Nigeria by the regional coalition, in which the Chadian army has taken a leading role since the joint operation was formed early this year.
Meanwhile, a female suicide bomber on a tricycle killed about eight people Friday in a new attack on a market in Maiduguri, witnesses said, as Nigeria and its neighbours finalise a force to fight Boko Haram.
“We took seven dead bodies, including that of the female bomber, to the hospital. Eight other people were injured and are now receiving treatment in a hospital,” Babakura Kolo, a vigilante in the northeastern town, told AFP.
The blast was the latest in a wave of attacks on busy markets — many by teenage girls — in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon, which claimed at least 130 lives and left scores injured this month.
“The attack (on the Gamboru) market happened around 6:30 am (0530 GMT) as the grocers were arriving in the market which starts early,” according to Kolo, who became a vigilante to help the Nigerian army combat Boko Haram.
“From accounts we gathered from people around, the woman arrived on a taxi tricycle, as every woman grocer does. She blew herself up as soon as the tricycle stopped in the midst of other tricycles dropping traders off,” Kolo said.
“I was at home when I heard a loud explosion that sent me rushing out of my house. It was coming from the Gamboru market… The place was littered with victims and burning rickshaws,” a local resident told AFP.
Gamboru market is the second largest in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and birthplace of Boko Haram, which has killed at least 15,000 people since its bloody insurgency began in 2009.
The extremist sect, whose name roughly translates as “Western education is forbidden”, has carried on its campaign of attacks on security forces, suicide bombings and bloody raids on villages across Nigeria’s north and eastern borders despite a major regional military campaign against them.