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NIGER-UNREST LEAD
Niger says 75 ‘Boko Haram terrorists’ killed
NIAMEY, May 13, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The Sahel state of Niger, which has been
battling a bloody jihadist insurgency, said Wednesday around 75 Boko Haram
combatants had been killed in the southeast and in neighbouring Nigeria.
Twenty-five “terrorists” were killed on Monday south of Diffa, the main
city in southeast Niger, while “about 50… were neutralised” the same day on
Nigerian soil in the Lake Chad region, in two operations by a regional anti-
jihadist force, the defence ministry said in a statement.
The figures could not be verified independently.
On Monday, troops from Niger’s contingent in the regional force carried out
“aggressive reconnaissance” on the banks of the Komadougou river and clashed
with Boko Haram fighters at a locality 74 kilometres (45 miles) south of
Diffa, the ministry said.
“All the terrorist group,” comprising 25 combatants, was killed, it said,
adding that two soldiers were lightly injured.
A vehicle, four motorbikes, weapons, ammunitions and various material “for
military use” were seized, the statement said.
The same day, around 50 “enemy elements” were “neutralised” in coalition
air strikes and artillery bombardment of Tombon-Fulani, an island in the
marshy Lake Chad region in northeastern Nigeria, the defence ministry added.
“Shelters and logistical dumps” were also destroyed, it said.
Jihadists carried out a major attack against a Nigerien military camp
outside Diffa on May 3, killing two soldiers and wounding three others,
according to the government.
A propaganda video released by the Islamic State West Africa Province
(ISWAP), a Boko Haram splinter group affiliated to the so-called Islamic
State, purported to show heavily-armed insurgents storm an army camp
following sustained fighting and heavy weapons fire.
Jihadists carried out another attack in the same area on Saturday.
Boko Haram’s insurgency has claimed more than 36,000 lives since it began
in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 and displaced nearly two million from their
homes.
The violence spilt over into neighbouring Sahel countries in 2015,
especially in the Lake Chad region, where the borders of Cameroon, Chad,
Niger and Nigeria converge.
Diffa, a city of 200,000 people located near the Nigerian border, has been
repeatedly attacked.
The region is home to 120,000 refugees from Nigeria as well as 110,000
people internally displaced within Niger, according to UN data released in
October.
The countries around Lake Chad, together with Benin, have set up a combined
group, the Multinational Joint Task Force, to counter the jihadists.
BSS/AFP/MRU/1713hrs