50 Boko Haram terrorists killed in southeastern Niger

KIGALI, Rwanda

At least 50 Boko Haram terrorists were killed in an attack on a military camp in southeastern Niger, local media reported, citing a Nigerien defense ministry statement Tuesday.

“Heavily armed Boko Haram terrorist elements in about 20 vehicles attacked the military camp in Toummour in Diffa region. The spontaneous response of our defence and security forces helped to repel the enemy,” the report said of the fighting Sunday. “[Fifty] Boko Haram fighters were neutralized while one soldier was wounded. After the attack, reinforcements from the Niger’s army special intervention battalion immediately pursued the enemy to its base on the shores of Lake Chad.”

The statement said Niger’s military captured several suspects, weapons and seized two vehicles.

Diffa has been under a state of emergency for the past five years since Boko Haram launched a military campaign in February 2015.

The terror group has had a presence in Nigeria since the early 2000s and has killed more than 20,000 since 2009.

It has carried out attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Niger since 2015.

On Boko Haram attack on a Niger’s Chetima Wangou military camp in the Diffa region March 7 killed eight killed and three are missing. The government said that almost all of the assailants who carried out the attack on were killed in airstrikes.