Niger: Boko Haram attack kills 6 soldiers, 3 wounded

Six Nigerien soldiers were killed and three others wounded on Wednesday in southeastern Niger in an attack attributed to the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.

According to the statement by the Interior Ministry read on state radio, the soldiers were killed in “an ambush” at 6:00 local” (5:00 GMT) by “terrorists of Boko Haram” 20 km from the city of Diffa, the regional capital of southeast Niger, which is close to Nigeria.

Since February 2015, Niger has been victim of incessant attacks of Boko Haram in the southeast, near the stronghold of the insurgents.

On 17 March, three days before the presidential election, a military commander was killed in a suicide attack in the same area. On the same day, three policemen were killed in western Niger during an attack attributed to Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Niger lies in the Lake Chad Basin together with Cameroon’s far north region, Niger and Nigeria with all the countries suffering the impact of Boko Haram attacks. The attacks let to a Joint Multinational Taskforce by the countries to counter the terrorists.

These attacks have led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in the region.

Nigeria since the assumption of office of President Buhari has stepped up attacks on the Boko Haram group weakening its ability to carry out attacks except to target soft civilian targets using female suicide bombers.

AFP