Boko Haram attacks Chad

Boko Haram rebels carried out their first attack Friday inside neighbouring Chad, targeting a village on the shores of Lake Chad

as part of a widening insurgency that has sucked in four countries.

The Islamist fighters crossed the vast lake by boat under cover of darkness to attack the village of Nougboua, across the water from the Nigerian town of Baga.

“They started firing on everything that moved,” Chadian army spokesman Azem Bermandoa Agoun told national radio.

Two-thirds of Ngouboua, which has become a sanctuary for Nigerians fleeing attacks by Boko Haram, was torched in the onslaught, a security source said.

In this screen grab image taken on February 9, 2015 from a video made available by Islamist group Boko Haram, leader Abubakar Shekau (C) makes a statement at an undisclosed location. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau vowed in a new video released on January 9, 2015 that the group would defeat a regional force fighting the militants in Nigeria’s far northeast, Niger and Cameroon.”AFP PHOTO / BOKO HARAM” -

Chadian forces, backed by military aircraft, returned fire, routing the militants and destroying their vessels, the source said.

Chadian officials reported one civilian — the village chief — and one soldier killed, with a further four troops wounded. Two Boko Haram fighters were also killed and five injured, N’Djamena said.

The security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, gave a higher Chadian death toll of four civilians, including the chief,