Five killed in first Boko Haram attack in Chad

Nigeria-based Boko Haram Islamists yesterday carried out their first attack inside Chad, killing five people in an early morning strike on a village and military camp on the shores of Lake Chad, a security source told AFP.

The pre-dawn attack left four civilians and one soldier dead and most of the village of Ngouboua torched before the jihadists were pushed back, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The attackers struck after crossing the lake from Baga, Nigeria to Ngouboua in Chad in large canoes.

Two-thirds of Ngouboua, where around 7,000 Nigerian refugees have sought refuge from the jihadists attacks, was torched in the onslaught.

Boko Haram has carried out several cross-border attacks on neighbours of Nigeria who have launched a regional operation to combat the group.

Meanwhile, at least 21 people were killed in two separate Boko Haram attacks on villages near the key city of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria, a community leader and a witness said ysterday. The two attacks came before a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a crowded market in the town of Biu, in the south of Borno state.

The death toll could increase further, as health officials were working to establish the identities of at least two other people who were blown apart by the strength of the blast.