The Nigerien Defence Ministry, Wednesday in Niamey, the capital of Niger Republic, announced that the country’s army had inflicted the heaviest casualty yet on the Boko Haram terrorist group.
The massacre, the ministry claimed, was a direct result of days of relentless air and land raids on the terrorists near Niger’s southeast border with Nigeria.
More than 280 terrorists had been killed since the operation started on December 28, 2018, the Ministry said state television. .
The announcement came on the heels of last November’s emergency meeting of leaders of countries in the Lake Chad Commission, comprising Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, on the escalating attacks by the Boko Haram insurgents.
The Lake Chad area is a strategic region where the borders of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger converge.
The operations, according to the Nigerien Defence Ministry, were carried out on the islands of Lake Chad and along the Komadougou Yobe River, a natural border between Niger and Nigeria that has suffered a string of attacks on its military bases in recent months.
Happily, the Nigerien army said it didn’t lose a single troop nor equipment in the highly successful operations during which eight canoes and two rocket launchers as well as assault weapons, ammunition and vehicles were captured.
Earlier last month, Niger’s defence minister had announced that they were serious suspicions that Boko Haram was planning renewed attacks on its positions this January when the waters of the Komadougou Yobe river which usually prevent incursions would have started to recede.
Defence Minister Kalla Moutari had told parliament that his ministry was worried by the rising incidents of successful Boko Haram attacks on military bases in Nigeria.
“Boko Haram fighters were able to get supplies, they were able to reinvigorate themselves,” said Moutari.
The campaign of blood by Boko Haram started in north eastern Nigeria in 2009 and spread into adjoining countries, prompting a regional military response.
An estimated 27,000 people have been killed and two million others displaced, sparking a serious humanitarian crisis in the region.
The insurgents have been targeting soldiers, police and military formations, as well as civilians. They have also carried out abductions of school children, women and expatriate workers of foreign companies, even aid workers.
The world has not forgotten the raids on Chibok and Dapchi, in the north east Nigeria. Only last November, a dozen girls were kidnapped by the insurgents during raids on several border villages in south eastern Niger.
Still, the Boko Haram militants were not done. They went on rampage also in the same month, killing seven local employees of a French drilling company and a government official when the militants stormed their compound. That attack shattered months of relative calm in the Diffa region near the Lake Chad basin.
