Triple suicide attack 'kills 27 on Lake Chad island'

A triple suicide bombing on an island in Lake Chad on Saturday killed at least 27 people and left more than 80 wounded, a Chadian security source said, in another apparent strike by Boko Haram Islamists despite a regional offensive to stop the insurgency.

"Three suicide bombers blew themselves up in three different places at the weekly market on Loulou Fou, an island in Lake Chad," the source in the capital N'Djamena told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

He said the explosions had killed 30 people including the three attackers, and injured more than 80 others.

N'Djamena on November 9 declared a state of emergency in the flashpoint Lake Chad region, which also straddles Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger and is frequently targeted by Nigeria's Boko Haram fighters who this year declared allegiance to the Islamic State group. 

The decree granted the governor of the remote region the authority to ban the circulation of people and vehicles, to search homes and to seize arms. 

The European Union in a statement said Saturday's attacks were "a threat to the stability of the country and the region".

The bloc stood ready to "use all available means to help in the fight against terrorism" in the region, it added.

In recent months, Boko Haram fighters have stepped up attacks and suicide bombings on Chadian villages in the lake region that lie close to the frontier with Nigeria. 

The deadliest attack on Chad's side of the lake took place on October 10, another triple suicide, which killed 41 people at Baga Sola, according to N'Djamena. 

Since the start of the year, the Chadian army has been on the front line of a regional military operation against Boko Haram, whose attacks have spread from northeast Nigeria, its traditional stronghold, to the country's three Lake Chad neighbours. 

The joint operation of the four Lake Chad countries plus Benin has involved 8,700 soldiers, police and civilians.

 Photo Caption: A multinational force from Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria are fighting the Boko Harm militant group in west Africa (AFP Photo/Issouf Sanogo)