Boko Haram are no longer in a position to seize a single
town in Niger, a Niger government minister said on
Saturday, following a regional effort to boost the fight
against the Islamist group.
Thousands of troops from Niger and Chad, which had
gathered in southeastern Niger, launched a major ground
and air offensive against the Islamist group last Sunday and
succeeded in retaking the northeastern Nigerian town of
Damasak.
“The situation is totally under control. There is no longer
any chance that Boko Haram will take a city… The risks of
attacks occurring are very much reduced by the elimination
of all the potential actors,” Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s
Minister of State at the Presidency, said during a visit to
Ivory Coast.
“It’s a feeling of total calmness that prevails with the idea
that Boko Haram is rather a thing of the past,” he said.
He said the situation was a far cry from the “real, totally
irrational panic” that had gripped Niger after the first attack
by the Nigeria-based Boko Haram on its neighbour in early
February.
More than 13,000 people have been killed and some 1.5
million made homeless in the Boko Haram conflict since
2009, while recent cross-border attacks launched from
Boko Haram strongholds in Nigeria on neighbouring
countries have increased security fears.
A regional coalition has claimed a series of successes in
rebel-held territory in recent weeks, as part of an operation
to clear and control northeast Nigeria in time for Nigeria’s
general elections set for March 28.
There has not been a Boko Haram attack reported in Niger
for nearly two weeks.
Regional forces have been particularly active in the
Gamboru area of Nigeria on the border with Cameroon. The
borders of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon converge in
the region around Lake Chad.
– ‘ Thing of the past’ –
Last week’s joint Niger-Chad offensive that retook
Damasak came the day after the leader of Boko Haram,
Abubakar Shekau, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State
(IS).
In doing so, the Nigerian militants joined extremists from
Libya to Pakistan who have previously done the same, as IS
looks to expand its reach.
In recent weeks, previously poorly produced Boko Haram
videos have taken on the look and feel of more polished IS
propaganda and been posted directly online, guaranteeing a
wider audience.
Boko Haram had held Damasak, near the Niger border,
since November 2014, part of a swathe of territory it had
seized in Nigeria’s northeast.
According to a Chadian security source, some 200 Boko
Haram fighters were left dead in the offensive, while 10
Chadian soldiers were killed and 20 wounded.
On March 6, the African Union endorsed the creation of an
additional regional force of up to 10,000 men to join the
fight against Boko Haram.
The regional coalition already operating — including troops
from Cameroon, Niger and Chad — has given renewed
vigour to the previously lacklustre counter-insurgency. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS
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