Forty people including four suspected Boko Haram fighters were killed when the insurgents carried out several attacks in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon yesterday. About 100 others were injured in the same attacks.
The attack in Nigeria took place in Potiskum, Yobe state. In Chad the insurgents attacked two locations in the capital, N’Djamena while in Cameroon they attacked two towns in the far north region.
In Potiskum, Yobe state, eleven people were killed in two separate suicide bombings. A Vigilante commander, Alhaji Ado Kwamanda and 9-year-old hawker were among the dead.
Residents told Daily Trust that the attacks happened around 12:30 PM when the first bomber stole a laptop computer from a repair shop and pretended to be running away.
“He was apprehended and handed over to the vigilante not knowing that he had strapped himself with explosives,” a source said.
He said that the bomber set off the explosives killing six vigilante members, and injuring many people.
The second bomber detonated himself at a Beer Parlor killing 2 people.
Police Public Relation Officer Mr Toyin Gbadegesin confirmed the incident but said eight people died on the spot in the two attacks.
He said the first suicide bomber targeted vigilante office, killing six people while the second one killed two other in Dorowa area.
The bomber apparently targeted members of the hunters association, who had teamed up with security forces in the fight against the insurgents, the source said.
A source at Potiskum General Hospital said the remains of the eleven victims were deposited at the hospital morgue while 22 others were receiving treatment.
Potiskum town has witnessed several suicide bomb attacks that left many people dead and several others injured.
Yesterday’s attack is coming just two days after suspected Boko Haram militants attacked Babbangida, the headquarters of Tarmuwa Local Government Area of Yobe state.
Four hunters and several Boko haram militants were said to have been killed during the encounter.
Chad attacks
The attacks in Chad which included at least one suicide bomber, are the first of their kind in the capital. Chad has spearheaded offensives against al Qaeda-linked groups in Mali and Boko Haram in neighbouring Nigeria.
“Boko Haram is making a mistake by targeting Chad,” Communications Minister Hassan Sylla Bakari said on state television. “These lawless terrorists will be chased out and neutralised wherever they are.”
Bakari did not give further details but Interior Minister Abderahim Bireme Hamid told Reuters earlier that there had been at least one suicide attack at police headquarters.
One witness at the central police station told Reuters by telephone that he had seen three bodies on the ground. Photos circulated on Twitter of several blood-stained bodies and damaged motorbikes reportedly used in the attack.
Chad has lost dozens of soldiers fighting in northern Mali and in Nigeria. The first known attack by Boko Haram on Chadian soil took place in February on the shores of Lake Chad, and has been followed by a handful of other isolated incidents.
The riverside city on Cameroon’s border is the headquarters for a regional taskforce grouping troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin to fight Boko Haram.
It also hosts Barkhane, a 3,000-strong French mission set up to fight terrorism across the Sahel-Sahara territorial band.
One foreign security source had earlier put the death toll at more than 40, pointing out that as many as 35 people were killed in two explosions at the police training school after an initial suicide bomb killed seven at a separate location.
The French foreign ministry condemned the incidents.
“France stands by Chad and its African partners in the fight against terrorism,” spokesman Romain Nadal said.
Cameroon
During their attacks in Cameroon the Boko Haram militants carted away foodstuff, cooking oil and animals from Dabanga and Ngassama in Cameroon, BBC Hausa reported.
Two Cameroonian security personnel had died, and many were injured when their vehicle developed fault midway as they pursued the insurgents.
About 11 members of the group ambushed four trailers, stuck with food items that were meant to be delivered to security personnel. The fourth vehicle, the report added, got stucked in the mud and its driver abandoned it there with the food items.
The terrorists also took many hostages.