Chad’s military has been accused of killing \u00ab\u00a0scores\u00a0\u00bb of fishermen in Nigeria while targeting jihadists, days after 40 died in a Boko Haram attack on a military base in Chad, fishermen and anti-jihadist militia told AFP on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Chadian army launched an airstrike pummelling Tilma island in Kukawa district on the Nigerian side of Lake Chad on Wednesday while fishermen were tending to their catch, the sources said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two anti-jihadist militia assisting Nigerian soldiers in fighting the militant groups in the region told AFP that \u00ab\u00a0scores\u00a0\u00bb were killed in the bombardment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00ab\u00a0There was an attack on fishermen by a (fighter) jet belonging to the Chadian military in Tilma island which killed scores of fishermen,\u00a0\u00bb Babakura Kolo, an anti-jihadist militia leader, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00ab\u00a0The jet mistook the fishermen for Boko Haram terrorists who attacked a military base inside Chad on Sunday,\u00a0\u00bb Kolo added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Requesting anonymity, a Chadian general staff officer told AFP that \u00ab\u00a0Boko Haram fighters often blend in with the fishermen and farmers whenever they commit their crimes. It is therefore difficult to distinguish between the population and the terrorists.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides killing around 40 people, Boko Haram’s Sunday raid on a base in the Lake Chad region also left dozens wounded, with the group claiming responsibility for the attack in a propaganda video released on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby, who visited the military base after the jihadist attack, has vowed to \u00ab\u00a0pursue and track down the attackers to their last entrenchment,\u00a0\u00bb according to a Chadian military statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the fishermen caught up in the aerial attack were from the towns of Baga, Doron-Baga and Duguri on the shores of Lake Chad, said Ibrahim Liman, another anti-jihadist militia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00ab\u00a0The fighter jet encircled Tilma before beginning to drop bombs while people run in all directions for cover,\u00a0\u00bb said fisherman Sallau Arzika.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arzika escaped the airstrike and made it back to the garrison town of Monguno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00ab\u00a0A large number of fishermen were killed. No one can give an exact number because bodies are still scattered across Tilma.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the dead bodies and the injured were taken to a military base in Mile 4, near Baga, Arzika added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fisherman Labo Sani from Doron-Baga told AFP that two of his friends were killed in the airstrike while a third was critically injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00ab\u00a0We were carrying out our fishing and it never crossed our mind that we would be attacked and killed by a fighter jet,\u00a0\u00bb said Sani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chad’s military has been accused of killing \u00ab\u00a0scores\u00a0\u00bb of fishermen in Nigeria while targeting jihadists, days after 40 died in a Boko Haram attack on a military base in Chad, fishermen and anti-jihadist militia told AFP on Thursday. The Chadian army launched an airstrike pummelling Tilma island in Kukawa district on the Nigerian side of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1236],"tags":[1234,1121,1235,922,1227],"adr_country":[1237,1085],"class_list":{"0":"post-13505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lead","8":"tag-airstrike","9":"tag-chad-fr","10":"tag-fishing","11":"tag-nigeria-fr","12":"tag-unrest-fr","13":"adr_country-chad-2","14":"adr_country-nigeria"},"acf":{"post_version":""},"yoast_head":"\n