Triple suicide attack kills 27 and injures 80 on Lake Chad island

It was another apparent strike by Boko Haram Islamists despite a regional offensive to stop the insurgency.

A triple suicide bombing on an island in Lake Chad has killed at least 27 people and left more than 80 wounded, a Chadian security source says.

"Three suicide bombers blew themselves up in three different places at the weekly market on Loulou Fou, an island in Lake Chad," the source in the capital N'Djamena said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On November 9, N'Djamena declared a state of emergency in the flashpoint Lake Chad region, which also straddles Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger and is frequently targeted by Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists.

The group declared allegiance to the Islamic State this year.

The decree granted the governor of the remote region the authority to ban the circulation of people and vehicles, to search homes and to seize arms.

In recent months, Boko Haram fighters have stepped up attacks and suicide bombings on Chadian villages in the lake region that lie close to the frontier with Nigeria.

The deadliest attack on Chad's side of the lake took place on October 10, another triple suicide, which killed 41 people at Baga Sola.

Since the start of the year, the Chadian army has been on the front line of a regional military operation against Boko Haram, whose attacks have spread from northeast Nigeria, its traditional stronghold, to the country's three Lake Chad neighbours.

The joint operation of the four Lake Chad countries plus Benin has involved 8,700 soldiers, police and civilians.