(UPDATED) B’Haram kills 38 in Chad’s market, refugee camp’s blasts

In the statement on Sunday, Usman said: “This is to once again warn all Boko Haram terrorists wherever they are, to desist from all acts of terrorism, surrender themselves and face the law now”.

The sources said the attacks in Kangaleri village, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the town of Mora, were carried out by two female suicide bombers.

While Boko Haram has attacked Chad’s capital before, the bombings on Saturday appear to be the largest and most elaborate staged yet in the country’s lake region.

The Cameroon explosions come after five coordinated suicide bombings in neighboring Chad on Saturday killed at least 36 people and wounded a few 50 others in a village near Lake Chad that is home to thousands of Nigerians who have fled the extremists’ violence.

Climate change has reduced its surface in recent years, but it contains many islands and islets used by fishermen and its banks have dense vegetation, which makes infiltrations by Boko Haram Islamists into Chad much easier.

Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria agreed to establish the 8,700-strong force, but it has yet to start operations in earnest because of reported funding difficulties. He said a second group were involved in the attack on the refugee camp, which killed at least 22 people.

“This multinational force has been slow because of a lack of logistic and financial resources”, he said.

Amnesty worldwide says the Nigeria-born Islamic extremist group has killed about 20,000 people in its six-year uprising.