DAKAR: Two suicide bombings in Ngouboua village near Lake Chad have killed at least three people and injured 14, Chad officials have said.
The first explosion went off near a public water tap and the second near a mill, both public gathering spots in the village near Lake Chad toward the border with Nigeria, Chad police spokesman Paul Manga said yesterday.
"Among the dead were a girl and a boy. There were 14 injured, of which four are in serious condition and have been transported by helicopter to Ndjamena," the capital, Lake Chad local official Dimouya Souapebe said. According to witnesses, the two suicide bombers were women, he said.
State television reported that two civilians were killed and nine injured. The reason for the discrepancy in the casualty toll wasn't immediately available.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is similar to others in the area by Nigerian Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.
Five coordinated suicide bombings in October killed at least 36 people and wounded some 50 others in the western village of Baga Sola near Lake Chad that is home to thousands of Nigerians who have fled the extremists' violence. A man, two women and two children carried out those attacks, the government said.
Boko Haram's six-year-old uprising has left an estimated 20,000 people dead, according to Amnesty International.