Boko Haram expands geography, attacks Niger, kills dozens
An attack by Islamist Boko Haram fighters in Niger has killed at least 38 people, officials say as the Sunni Muslim group expands beyond the borders of northern Nigeria in their fight to establish a caliphate – that is, an Islamic State.
This attack was on Wednesday night, according to a security source quoted by the Reuters news agency. Local MP Bulu Mammadu told the BBC that the victims included women and children who had been shot dead in two different villages.
On Monday, there was a suspected Boko Haram suicide attack in Chad, which is also supplying soldiers to the multinational force.
Boko Haram fighters photo/ screenshot Boko Haram video
Mammadu said that, as well as killing people, the militants had burnt down several houses in the two villages of Lamina and Ungumawo in the Diffa region, close to Nigeria’s border.
Boko Haram first attacked Niger in February when the government said it repulsed an attack, killing more than 100 of the group’s fighters.
Since being sworn in last month, Nigeria’s new President Muahammadu Buhari has pushed ahead with plans to beef up the multinational force which will be made up of 7,500 troops.
President Buhari promised in a message on his Twitter feed on Thursday that the “efforts to strengthen security cooperation with our neighbours and adjust our own response to Boko Haram will yield results very soon”.
[…] June 2015: Boko Haram’s geography expands into Niger […]