An attack by suspected Islamist Boko Haram fighters in neighbouring Niger Republic has killed at least 38 people, officials say.
The attack took place late on Wednesday night, according to a security source quoted by Reuters.
A member of the local parliament, Bulu Mammadu, also told the BBC that the victims included women and children, shot dead in two different villages.
Boko Haram, based in Nigeria, is currently being tackled by a multinational force, including soldiers from Niger.
On Monday, there was a suspected Boko Haram suicide attack in Chad, which is also supplying soldiers to the multinational force.
Chad responded to that attack with air strikes on suspected Boko Haram positions.
In Niger, Mammadu said that as well as
killing people, the militants had burnt down several houses in the two
villages of Lamina and Ungumawo, in the Diffa region, close to Nigeria’s
border.
But on his Twitter
handle on Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari assured Nigerians and
their neighbours that the Boko Haram insurgents would soon be defeated.
“I mourn every single death of a
Nigerian as a result of terrorism. That is why security is my number one
priority. Our efforts to strengthen security cooperation with our
neighbours and adjust our own response to Boko Haram will yield results
very soon. Our resolve and capacity to end terrorism is much greater
than the threat we face. Nigeria will prevail,” Buhari said.
Boko Haram first attacked Niger in
February when the government said it repulsed an attack, killing more
than 100 of the group’s fighters.
Since being sworn in last month, Buhari
has pushed ahead with plans to beef up the multinational force, which
will be made up of 7,500 troops.
On Monday, the United States of
America’s government, at the 25th African Union Summit pledged the sum
of $5m to back Nigeria and its neighbours in their fight against Boko
Haram.
Meanwhile, a former Chief of Army Staff,
Lt.-Gen. Alani Akinrinade (retd.), on Thursday in Kaduna said the
Nigerian military was not the solution to the persistent Boko Haram
insurgency that had wrecked havoc on the North-East states of Adamawa,
Borno, Yobe and other parts of the north.
The one-time Army chief spoke as
chairman of a seminar on the Africa’s Big Five, organised by the Gusau
Institute, a research library with interest in governance and security,
founded by another retired general and former Minister of Defence,
Mohammed Ibrahim Gusau.
Akinrinade said, “Let me say a word or
two again about Boko Haram; I have heard a lot of discussions about Boko
Haram from many people . I must say that I am lost about the causes of
Boko Haram and I am sure most of our country men are also lost. I want
to charge this institute to take this matter very seriously.
“But I am not aware of any military
doctrine that has been put down that has addressed effectively guerrilla
warfare, which is easier. But these kinds of insurrection we are now
having in our hands have never been addressed by any military doctrine
successfully.”
“I am aware that military solution is
not going to be the end of Boko Haram. So the ball is in the court of
politicians, economists and those that have human sympathy that could
bring solution to this crisis.”
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