50,000 Flee Boko Haram Attacks in Niger
JUNE 7, 20161:30
United Nations News Center
Tens of thousands of people have fled southeastern Niger following deadly attacks by Boko Haram insurgents on the town of Bosso in recent days, the United Nations said Tuesday.
“An estimated 50,000 people or so fled,” UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva. The attacks beginning Friday against a military post in Bosso in Niger’s troubled Diffa region killed 26 soldiers, including two from neighbouring Nigeria.
A total 55 insurgents from the Nigeria-based Islamist group were killed and “many” injured, according to authorities. Edwards said most of those fleeing the violence were walking westwards to Toumour, some 30 kilometres west of Bosso.
“Many people are reportedly traumatised and worried about their safety. People are sleeping in the open and urgently need shelter and other assistance,” he said.
A local journalist working with Radio Amfani told AFP that people began leaving the town at dawn Saturday after the gunmen initially withdrew. “We trekked to Toumour where most of us are now sheltering with no food,” he said.
In Bosso, he said, the Islamist fighters torched “the military barracks, police facilities and local administration office before looting shops and carting away food supplies.” Edwards said some of the displaced had moved on from Toumour and were heading to the town of Diffa, around 140 kilometres west of Bosso, and northwards towards Kabel awa, where a camp for the internally displaced is at near capacity with some 10,000 people.”
“The welfare of these people and others forced to flee the violence in Bosso is of great concern,” he said. The latest attack was among the deadliest by the jihad ist group in Niger since it began launching raids in the country in February 2015 from its stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria.
At least 240,000 people have been displaced in the Diffa region since then. UNHCR, which has not had a presence in Bosso since the Boko Haram raids began nearly a year and a half ago, said it was working with the authorities and local partners to coordinate the response to the mass displacement.
“A team will be on route to the Diffa region this week,” Edwards said.
Boko Haram’s seven-year insurgency has devastated infrastructure in Nigeria’s impoverished northeast and forced around 2.1 million people in the country to flee their homes, according to UNHCR. The unrest has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/06/50000-flee-boko-haram-attacks-niger-un/
Niger vows to avenge deadly raid by Boko Haram
By AFP
06 June 2016
Niger vowed to avenge the deaths of 30 of its soldiers who were killed by Boko Haram insurgents in one of the jihadist group’s deadliest attacks in the country.
“We must continue to fight, this insult must be expunged, there is nothing to be done, it must be avenged,” Defence Minister Hassoumi Massoudou said Sunday.
The minister was speaking to troops at a garrison at Bosso, near the Nigerian border where the deadly attack took place on Friday, according to a broadcast on state television on Monday.
It said the minister visited military positions in Bosso accompanied by army chiefs and Nigerian General Lamidi Adeosun, head of the multinational force that groups soldiers from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad to fight Boko Haram.
The minister also toured the town to view to scale of the damage caused by the Islamic insurgents, the television said.
It showed images of a burnt-out military transport vehicle and a town seemingly devoid of its 20,000 residents and Nigerian refugees.
“It’s terrible, all of Niger is crying,” said Massoudou, adding that he felt “deeply wounded” after visiting the site of the bloodshed.
The attack “will unfortunately be engraved on the history of our people.”
He urged the troops to keep their “morale high” as “we will win this war.”
Thirty Nigerien and two Nigerian soldiers were killed in the attack by hundreds of Boko Haram assailants on a military post in Bosso, the defence ministry said on Saturday. It said 67 soldiers were wounded.
– Insurgents ‘do what they like’ –
“On the enemy’s side, several dead and injured were taken away,” the ministry said.
Local resident and former MP Elhaj Aboubacar said: “They drove up at twilight, shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest), they fired a lot of shots and torched many places in Bosso.”
“We don’t know where our military went, but one thing is for sure, Boko Haram were able to do what they liked until dawn,” Aboubacar said.
It was one of the deadliest attacks by Boko Haram in Niger since the Islamist group began launching raids in the country in February 2015 from its stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria.
Boko Haram’s seven-year insurgency has devastated infrastructure in Nigeria’s impoverished northeast and forced around 2.1 million people in Nigeria to flee their homes, according to the UN’s refugee agency.
The unrest has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
Since Friday’s attacks, thousands of residents have fled Bosso to “more secure areas”, a UN source said.
Water, food, shelter and medical aid remain “the most urgent needs”, the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in Niamey.
It said humanitarian aid missions to Bosso were suspended for security reasons.
The attack comes as the multinational force prepares to launch a “decisive” offensive against Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region.
32 Nigerien troops die in clash with Boko Haram
By AFP
04 June 2016 1:41 pm
Thirty-two troops have been killed in a clash with Boko Haram jihadists on Niger’s border with Nigeria, Niger’s defence ministry said on Saturday.
“Hundreds of assailants” attacked a military post at Bosso on Friday evening, it said in a statement that gave a “provisional toll” of 30 Nigerien and two Nigerian soldiers killed and 67 wounded.
“On the enemy’s side, several dead and injured were taken away,” the ministry said.
“Our defence and security forces carried out a counter-attack this morning which enabled them to retake all positions in the town of Bosso.
“The situation is under control and calm has returned.”
Since February 2015, Niger has been plagued by Boko Haram attacks in its southeast region.
The Islamists frequently stage cross-border raids from their stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria.
The insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
United Nations News Center
Tens of thousands of people have fled southeastern Niger following deadly attacks by Boko Haram insurgents on the town of Bosso in recent days, the United Nations said Tuesday.
“An estimated 50,000 people or so fled,” UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva. The attacks beginning Friday against a military post in Bosso in Niger’s troubled Diffa region killed 26 soldiers, including two from neighbouring Nigeria.
A total 55 insurgents from the Nigeria-based Islamist group were killed and “many” injured, according to authorities. Edwards said most of those fleeing the violence were walking westwards to Toumour, some 30 kilometres west of Bosso.
“Many people are reportedly traumatised and worried about their safety. People are sleeping in the open and urgently need shelter and other assistance,” he said.
A local journalist working with Radio Amfani told AFP that people began leaving the town at dawn Saturday after the gunmen initially withdrew. “We trekked to Toumour where most of us are now sheltering with no food,” he said.
In Bosso, he said, the Islamist fighters torched “the military barracks, police facilities and local administration office before looting shops and carting away food supplies.” Edwards said some of the displaced had moved on from Toumour and were heading to the town of Diffa, around 140 kilometres west of Bosso, and northwards towards Kabel awa, where a camp for the internally displaced is at near capacity with some 10,000 people.”
“The welfare of these people and others forced to flee the violence in Bosso is of great concern,” he said. The latest attack was among the deadliest by the jihad ist group in Niger since it began launching raids in the country in February 2015 from its stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria.
At least 240,000 people have been displaced in the Diffa region since then. UNHCR, which has not had a presence in Bosso since the Boko Haram raids began nearly a year and a half ago, said it was working with the authorities and local partners to coordinate the response to the mass displacement.
“A team will be on route to the Diffa region this week,” Edwards said.
Boko Haram’s seven-year insurgency has devastated infrastructure in Nigeria’s impoverished northeast and forced around 2.1 million people in the country to flee their homes, according to UNHCR. The unrest has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/06/50000-flee-boko-haram-attacks-niger-un/
Niger vows to avenge deadly raid by Boko Haram
By AFP
06 June 2016
Niger vowed to avenge the deaths of 30 of its soldiers who were killed by Boko Haram insurgents in one of the jihadist group’s deadliest attacks in the country.
“We must continue to fight, this insult must be expunged, there is nothing to be done, it must be avenged,” Defence Minister Hassoumi Massoudou said Sunday.
The minister was speaking to troops at a garrison at Bosso, near the Nigerian border where the deadly attack took place on Friday, according to a broadcast on state television on Monday.
It said the minister visited military positions in Bosso accompanied by army chiefs and Nigerian General Lamidi Adeosun, head of the multinational force that groups soldiers from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad to fight Boko Haram.
The minister also toured the town to view to scale of the damage caused by the Islamic insurgents, the television said.
It showed images of a burnt-out military transport vehicle and a town seemingly devoid of its 20,000 residents and Nigerian refugees.
“It’s terrible, all of Niger is crying,” said Massoudou, adding that he felt “deeply wounded” after visiting the site of the bloodshed.
The attack “will unfortunately be engraved on the history of our people.”
He urged the troops to keep their “morale high” as “we will win this war.”
Thirty Nigerien and two Nigerian soldiers were killed in the attack by hundreds of Boko Haram assailants on a military post in Bosso, the defence ministry said on Saturday. It said 67 soldiers were wounded.
– Insurgents ‘do what they like’ –
“On the enemy’s side, several dead and injured were taken away,” the ministry said.
Local resident and former MP Elhaj Aboubacar said: “They drove up at twilight, shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest), they fired a lot of shots and torched many places in Bosso.”
“We don’t know where our military went, but one thing is for sure, Boko Haram were able to do what they liked until dawn,” Aboubacar said.
It was one of the deadliest attacks by Boko Haram in Niger since the Islamist group began launching raids in the country in February 2015 from its stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria.
Boko Haram’s seven-year insurgency has devastated infrastructure in Nigeria’s impoverished northeast and forced around 2.1 million people in Nigeria to flee their homes, according to the UN’s refugee agency.
The unrest has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
Since Friday’s attacks, thousands of residents have fled Bosso to “more secure areas”, a UN source said.
Water, food, shelter and medical aid remain “the most urgent needs”, the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in Niamey.
It said humanitarian aid missions to Bosso were suspended for security reasons.
The attack comes as the multinational force prepares to launch a “decisive” offensive against Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region.
32 Nigerien troops die in clash with Boko Haram
By AFP
04 June 2016 1:41 pm
Thirty-two troops have been killed in a clash with Boko Haram jihadists on Niger’s border with Nigeria, Niger’s defence ministry said on Saturday.
“Hundreds of assailants” attacked a military post at Bosso on Friday evening, it said in a statement that gave a “provisional toll” of 30 Nigerien and two Nigerian soldiers killed and 67 wounded.
“On the enemy’s side, several dead and injured were taken away,” the ministry said.
“Our defence and security forces carried out a counter-attack this morning which enabled them to retake all positions in the town of Bosso.
“The situation is under control and calm has returned.”
Since February 2015, Niger has been plagued by Boko Haram attacks in its southeast region.
The Islamists frequently stage cross-border raids from their stronghold in neighbouring Nigeria.
The insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
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