Chad’s parliament has decided to prolong a state of emergency in the southern Lake Chad region, prey to bomb attacks by the Nigerian Islamists of Boko Haram, a parliamentary source said Thursday.
The resolution was unanimously passed on Wednesday night by 147 members of parliament and will extend the special powers given to regional authorities until March 22, 2016.
The Chadian government initially decreed a state of emergency in the region on November 9 after two women suicide bombers killed two local people and injured 14 others at Ngouboua.
Boko Haram’s ruthless insurgency has claimed at least 15,000 lives since it began in neighbouring northeast Nigeria in 2009. Deadly raids have been launched against Chad, Cameroon and Niger as the three countries deployed troops to help Nigerian forces.