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Dozens of Nigerian fishermen feared dead after Chad army strikes jihadists: local sources / Photo: © AFP
Dozens of Nigerian fishermen feared dead after Chad army strikes jihadists: local sources
Dozens of Nigerian fishermen are feared dead after a Chadian army attack against jihadists on Lake Chad, a civilian militia member and a union official told AFP on Sunday.
The militia member said the number of dead was unknown, as the operation on the vast expanse of water and marshland between Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad was still ongoing.
But a Lake Chad fishermen's union official said: "Chadian fighter jets bombarded two islands. So far, 40 Nigerian fishermen have been missing and believed to have drowned from the strikes, according to fishermen who escaped."
The militia member said Chadian fighter jets had been bombing islands controlled by Boko Haram on the Nigerian side of the lake since Friday, following a recent attack on its troops.
He said there were "huge casualties" among the fishermen, who pay tax to Boko Haram to allow them to fish in the area.
The bombing was concentrated on the jihadist stronghold of Shuwa island, where Nigeria, Niger and Chad meet on the lake, he added.
"Many people were killed," said Adamu Haladu, a fisherman from Baga, in northeast Nigeria.
"Most of those killed in the airstrikes are from the town of Doron Baga on the Nigerian shores of the lake and from Taraba state.
"It is not a secret that Nigerian fishermen pay tax to Boko Haram to have access to the remote island with a huge fish reservoir. Boko Haram ferry them on their boats to those islands and bring them back with their catch."
- Recent attacks -
The Chadian army has not yet issued a statement.
But Chad declared three days of national mourning last week after a Boko Haram ambush Wednesday on an army patrol in Lake Chad's island area killed two generals.
Two days before that, a Boko Haram raid on a military base on the shores of Lake Chad killed at least 24 soldiers.
In October 2024, Chad's army was accused of having killed dozens of Nigerian fishermen in air strikes launched against Boko Haram on Tilma island on Lake Chad.
That was in reprisal for a jihadist attack that killed 40 Chadian soldiers, but witnesses said the air strikes had instead killed the fishermen.
Chad's military at the time denied it had targeted civilians.
The Lake Chad area serves as a base for both Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger in 2015 reactivated a multinational force set up in the mid-1990s to combat jihadist groups operating around the lake.
Niger left the regional force last year due to strained ties between the military government in Niamey and its neighbours.
M.Hill--SFF
