Niger: army repeals Boko Haram attack, kills dozens of jihadist fighters

Fierce fighting in southeastern Niger has left 10 soldiers wounded and several dozen jihadist fighters from the notorious Boko Haram group dead in the nation’s unstable region, Government officials have said.

The clash was provoked by a group of Boko Haram jihadists who attacked a special intervention battalion positioned at the airport in N’Guigmi, a garrison town in the Diffa region near the border with Nigeria, according to a statement by Niger’s defense ministry. Several dozen “terrorists” were subsequently routed towards the banks of Lake Chad where they were “neutralized” with air support through “surgical” air strikes, the statement added. Lake Chad, a vast expense of water and marshland that straddles the borders of Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad, has been the site of frequent attacks from Boko Haram as well as Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

This latest clash is the worst reported between the army and jihadists after several months of a relative calm in the region, the scene of jihadist attacks since 2015. Niger, which has been led by junta leaders since a military coup last July, is one of the poorest nations in the world. It is also facing a deadly jihadist insurgency in the west near the borders with Mali and Burkina Faso. In a separate but related development, a to US official said on Wednesday (24 January) that the future of a US military drone base in Niger hinges on the ruling junta’s efforts to restore democracy and release ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. After the coup, the US was forced to cut development aid and suspend military operations at Air Base 201, its most strategic military asset in Sub-Saharan Africa.