The Government of Chad through its parliament has decided to prolong the 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 to stay the state of emergency in the region was passed on Wednesday night by 147 members of parliament extending 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 activities in the region 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.
The borders of all four nations converge in the Lake Chad region, which has many inhabitants living on a host of small islands in fishing villages. The area also offers potential refuge to Boko Haram fighters.
With the resolution,the country’s parliament has empowered the regional governor to ban the movement of people and vehicles in zones of his choice at specified hours. He can also order “house to house searches by day and night under the authority of the Prosecutor of the Republic, and to recover weapons,” according to the government
