Niger army ‘kills 10 Boko Haram terrorists’

The Nigerien army says it has killed at least 10 members of the Takfiri Boko Haram terrorist group, who attacked one of its military positions in the southeast of the African country.

Niger’s Defense Ministry made the announcement in a statement on Saturday, saying that the attacks by the Takfiri outfit had been perpetrated in Baroua Village, located in the country’s southeastern Diffa region, near the border with Nigeria.

“In the night from Thursday to Friday, the military station of Baroua was attacked by the terrorist group Boko Haram,” the statement said. “On the enemy’s side, 10 terrorists were killed.”

The ministry also said the attack left one army soldier dead and two others injured, adding that the area was still being searched by security forces.

Earlier this month, at least six Nigerien soldiers were killed in an attack at a military post in the same area.

Niger has been one of the countries affected by more than seven years of Boko Haram militancy in Nigeria.

In June 2016, an assault on the nearby town of Bosso killed over 30 soldiers, prompting Chad to send 2,000 troops to help Niger combat the militants. Those troops were withdrawn in October last year, raising renewed concern about security in the Diffa region.

According to United Nations (UN)’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the toll from attacks carried out by Boko Haram terrorists fell in Niger last year.

A total of 141 civilians in Niger were killed, kidnapped or wounded by the terrorist group in 2017, showing a sharp decrease compared to 2016, the OCHA said in January.

The Takfiri terrorist group has routinely launched attacks across Nigerian borders into Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.

‘18 killed in Boko Haram attack in Chad’

Just on Sunday, a Chadian military source said 18 people had lost their lives in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants in the Lake Chad region.

The source said the fatalities had taken place at around 9:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Thursday in a village south of Daboua, not far from Chad’s border with Niger.

The assailants “cut the throats of 18 people, wounded two others and kidnapped 10 women.”

Boko Haram has terrorized the region since it took up arms in 2009 in Nigeria, leaving at least 20,000 people dead, displacing more than two million others and triggering a humanitarian crisis.

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