Jihadist-hit Niger final week killed about 30 members of the Boko Haram group and detained 960 followers, most of them ladies and youngsters, who had fled neighbouring Nigeria, official sources stated.
State TV channel Tele Sahel stated late Tuesday that on March 7 aerial surveillance noticed a “huge motion of individuals” alongside the Kamadougou Yoge River, which marks the border between the 2 nations, who have been heading in the direction of Lke Chad.
The report stated they have been members of the Boko Haram jihadist group, who have been fleeing their hideout in Sambisa forest in northeast Nigeria after coming beneath stress from their rivals, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
ISWAP break up from Boko Haram in 2016 and rose to turn into the dominant group within the area’s long-running jihadist turmoil.
It seized swathes of territory beneath Boko Haram management after chief Abubakar Shekau was killed in clashes with ISWAP in Could 2021.
Searching for to stop the group from reaching Lake Chad and utilizing its marshlands as a haven, the military tried to barter a give up, utilizing envoys and dropping leaflets, however ultimately launched a daybreak assault on March 11, Tele Sahel stated.
“Round 30 terrorists have been neutralised” and 960 different folks, most of whom have been ladies and youngsters, have been detained, taken to the city of Diffa and handed over to the Nigerian navy authorities, it stated.
An elected official in Toumour, a village close to the city of Bosso bordering Lake Chad, confirmed Wednesday that “a lot of Boko Haram” fleeing Sambisa had been intercepted on Niger’s border “and handed over to the Nigerian authorities.”
One other official stated that many others, nevertheless, “are heading in the direction of (the islands) on the lake, particularly ladies and youngsters, in horrible situations.”
One of many poorest nations on the earth, Niger is being assailed by two jihadist insurgencies.
One, within the southwest, got here from neighbouring Mali in 2015, whereas the opposite, within the southeast, is a long-running spillover from Boko Haram’s marketing campaign in Nigeria.
The group’s violence has killed over 40,000 folks and displaced round two million from their properties since 2009, in response to the United Nations.
The huge Lake Chad area, shared by Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad, is a infamous bolthole for each Boko Haram and ISWAP, who arrange camps on islands in its marshlands.
The 4 nations arrange a Multinational Joint Activity Pressure in 2015, comprising 8,500, with the intention of defeating the armed teams.
