08/04/2020 Chad (International Christian Concern) – On Friday, July 31st, Boko Haram attacked a village in the troubled Lake Chad region where at least ten civilians were murdered and seven others kidnapped. An army officer and a local official stated that, “At around 3 am (0200 GMT), Boko Haram fighters attacked the Tenana village killing two women and eight men. They kidnapped seven men, as well as looting and burning the village before withdrawing.”
Lake Chad region is located near the border of Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon. Yacoub Mahamat Seitchimi, a local prefect, confirmed the attack stating that he sent a sub-prefect and a police chief to the village to sympathize with the bereaved families. He said, “These are the disgruntled local children who prey on their own parents” referring to Boko Haram recruiting from the area.
Since being launched in northeast Nigeria in 2009, Boko Haram’s insurgency has killed more than 36,000 people and displaced more than two million from their homes. The violent conflict has spread to Niger, Chad and Cameroon. In March 2020, Chad’s armed forces suffered their biggest single-day loss, when 98 soldiers were murdered in their base at Bohoma, on the banks of Lake Chad. In response, President Idriss Déby Itno launched an offensive from March 31 to April 3, declaring at its end that there was “not a single jihadist left in the Lake Chad region.” However, sporadic violence has continued, earlier this month Boko Haram attacked an army vehicle and killed eight Chad soldiers.
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