Islamist militant group Boko Haram this week suffered after thirty eight of its fighters were killed during military search operations carried out by Niger and Chad troops in the Diffa region of southeast Niger, an official said on Friday.
Two soldiers were lightly wounded in the action and “on the enemy side; 38 terrorists killed,” Niger defence ministry spokesperson Moustapha Ledru said on state television.
Substantial quantities of weapons and munitions were also seized, Colonel Ledru added.
The joint army operations took place between Monday and Wednesday around the villages of Gueskerou and Toumour in southeastern Niger, he added.
According to villagers and NGO workers in Gueskerou, 30km from Diffa, Boko Haram elements attacked the town on Wednesday night, without killing anyone.
“The attack nonetheless caused a psychosis in the population” and “the assailants torched houses and stole food and medicines after pillaging shops and a pharmacy,” an NGO official told AFP.
The militant group’s insurgency has left at least 20000 people dead in Nigeria and border areas of neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
