Bloody weekend as Boko Haram strikes Chad, Nigeria

At least 50 people were killed Saturday night by Boko Haram militants in north-eastern Nigeria, while three others were killed in two suicide attacks in neighbouring Chad on Sunday.

The attacks in Chad left some 56 people wounded in an area regularly targeted by the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.

Witnesses say the militants attacked Dalori, a village 12 kilometers from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State on Saturday night before destroying the village.

“Many people fled into the bush, myself included. When we returned the next morning the whole village had been razed. At least 50 people were killed and there are many wounded,” a local chief Malam Dalori Masa, told the AFP.

A Nigerian army spokesman Mustapha Anka confirmed “there have been deaths and some wounded” after the attacks but did not give further details about the number of deaths.

He said the Islamist group “arrived in the village in two cars and motorcycles, opened fire and burned houses.”

Three female suicide bombers who attempted to mingle with the villagers were arrested, he said.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Chad, the attacks happened in two localities of Lake Chad.

The first attack targeted the village of Guié, where a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up, killing one person and injuring 32 others, a security source told the AFP.

The second suicide bomber killed two people and wounded 24 others in the village of Miterine.

The Lake Chad area is under a state of emergency in a bid to fight against attacks by Boko Haram.

The group has since 2009 waged a war that has left more than 17,000 dead and 2.6 million others displaced in Nigeria.

The Islamist insurgents have tried repeatedly to take Maiduguri.

The four countries bordering Lake Chad and Benin have established a multinational joint task force with 8,700 soldiers, police and civilians to fight Boko Haram which has now pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group.