KANO: 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."
Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger in 2015 reactivated a multinational force that was 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.