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NIGER-UNREST-BOKOHARAM,LEAD
Boko Haram attacks in eastern Niger leave 10 dead: mayor
NIAMEY, March 27, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Ten people were killed along with two
suicide bombers in a coordinated attack late Tuesday by Boko Haram jihadists
on a town in eastern Niger, the local mayor said.
“Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up and gunmen then attacked
civilians,” the mayor of the town of N’Guigmi, Abba Kaya Issa, told AFP on
Wednesday.
“We have a provisional toll of 10 dead plus the two suicide bombers,”
along with “seven or eight” wounded, he said, blaming “Boko Haram elements”
for the assault.
“One of the suicide bombers blew herself up in the courtyard of a
policeman’s home, which is located inside the police barracks, and the second
triggered her explosives belt between the town hall, the police barracks and
the prefecture,” he said, referring to the office of the state
representative.
A local resident said several houses had been burned and wounded children
in the police camp had been taken to the local hospital.
Another inhabitant said “armed Boko Haram” attacked the district of
Dileram, “killing civilians and torching homes”.
N’Guigmi lies in the north of the Diffa region, near Lake Chad, which has
borne the brunt of cross-border infiltration by the Nigerian-based jihadists.
Eight people were killed last Thursday in the village of Karidi and 14
died in four attacks on Saturday. Fourteen soldiers have been killed since
February 16.
The army says it killed “more than 200 terrorists” in the region at the
end of last year, as well as 33 others on March 12.
An estimated 27,000 people have been killed and two million displaced
since Boko Haram launched its insurgency in northeastern Nigeria 2009, a
campaign that has spilled over to Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1900HRS