N'djamena - Fighters from Nigeria's Boko
Haram insurgency fleeing an offensive by
soldiers from Chad and Niger launched a rare
attack on Chadian soil, killing seven people,
security sources said on Friday.
The two armies drove the Islamist insurgents
from Malam Fatori, one of Boko Haram's last
major footholds along Nigeria's northern border,
earlier this week.
While they faced little resistance as they
entered the town on Tuesday, Chad claimed the
joint force killed hundreds of Boko Haram
fighters in clashes the following day in which
nine Chadian soldiers died and another 16 were
injured.
"Some Boko Haram militants fleeing Malam
Fatori towards Lake Chad attacked Maidogo,
near Ngouboua, on Thursday, killing seven
people," said a Chadian security source.
The attack on Maidogo, which is located on an
island in Lake Chad, was confirmed by other
military sources.
"After being defeated in Malam Fatori, some
Boko Haram elements fled west and others
towards the islands on Lake Chad aboard
canoes," General Seyni Garba, the head of
Niger's army, said on Friday.
Ngouboua, a fishing village on the shores of
Lake Chad, was targeted in February in the first
known lethal attack by Boko Haram on Chadian
territory.
A military offensive by Nigeria and neighbouring
countries has succeeded in driving Boko Haram,
which has killed thousands in its push to create
an Islamic caliphate, from most of the positions
it held in northeastern Nigeria.
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