African securityNiger attacks Boko Haram targets after militants intensify activity inside Niger
Niger’s army has said it killed fifteen Boko Haram militants in land and air operations against the Islamist group. Earlier this year, frustrated by the Nigerian army’s ineffectiveness, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger told Nigeria that they would join the war against the Islamists – including conducting operations inside Nigeria. The military operations by the three countries have pushed Boko Haram out of many areas it used to control – but in retaliation, Boko Haram has intensified its attacks on Nigeria’s three neighbors.
Niger’s army has said it killed fifteen Boko Haram militants in land and air operations against the Islamist group. The army said it also took twenty prisoners and destroyed an armored vehicle, twenty-six motorbikes, and two caches of food and fuel.
Colonel Moustapha Ledru of the Niger army did not say whether the Chadian army, which has positioned large numbers of troops in Niger, had participated in the operation. Ledru also refused to answer questions about whether the operations have taken place in Niger or inside neighboring Nigeria.
VOA reports that since 2009, when Boko Haram launched its campaign to establish a strict Islamic state in Nigeria’s north east, the Nigerian military has proven itself no match for the militants. Hollowed out by corruption and demoralized by incompetent leadership, the army’s ineffectiveness allowed Boko haram to expand its control over larger areas, and expand its area of operations.
Nigeria refused offers of help from neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger – but earlier this year, when Boko Haram, unmolested by the Nigerian military, began to operate inside these three countries, they told former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan that they would begin a military campaign against the militants – including attacking Boko Haram in Nigerian soil. Jonathan, who was locked in a tight presidential election campaign – which he would subsequently lose – accepted the ultimatum of Nigeria’s neighbors, and allowed their armies and air forces to operate inside Nigeria.
The tide of the war against the militants had turned, and Boko Haram had been pushed back from many areas it used to control.
The Chad air force had proved especially effective, inflicting heavy losses on the militants.
The Nigerian army also appeared to have been invigorated by the performance of its neighbors, and in the last few months showed itself to me a more effective fighting machine.
In an effort to retaliate against the growing involvement of Cameroon, Chad, and Niger in the war, Boko Haram has increased its terror activities inside these countries. A double suicide attack carried out by Boko Haram caused carnage in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, earlier in June, killing thirty-three people and wounding more than 100 others. The announcement by the Niger army’s operation came after an attack by Boko Haram militants in south-east Niger last week killed thirty-eight civilians, most of them women and children. The attack in Diffa province near Nigeria was the deadliest in Niger by the jihadist group since a raid in April killed seventy-four people.
Niger’s interior minister has ordered the military to conduct air and land operations as the country’s security forces seek to “capture and neutralize” the attackers.
Earlier this week, Boko Haram gunmen killed at least forty-two people in two separate attacks in north-east Nigeria, as the Islamist group continues to attack civilians.
