Nigeria police make arrests over Boko Haram `sleeper cells` in Abuja area

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

Gen. Banyaman Cossingar, Chad gendarmerie director general, confirmed the attack, saying Nigeria’s Islamic extremist group Boko Haram is suspected.

Boko Haram attacks have spread from northeast Nigeria, its traditional stronghold, to the neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

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The borders of four nations, Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger divide Lake Chad’s many islands and inlets.

Chad extended a state of emergency in the region last month after a double suicide attack that killed 12 people.

A Chad police spokesman said three female suicide bombers carried out Saturday’s attack.

The claim comes on the heels of twin attacks by women suicide bombers the previous day in the far north of Cameroon, an area repeatedly targeted by the Islamists in which at least six people died. Five coordinated suicide bombings in October killed at least 36 people and wounded 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. An estimated 20,000 people have been killed. The militants are based mostly in Nigeria but have become a wider security threat for the region.

Another suicide bombing killed three people in Chad on November 9. One of the nine suspected Boko Haram members was said to be found conducting surveillance of a “high-profile” hotel.