According to the latest information provided by an anonymous military source, 200 rebels have been killed and about 10 Chadian soldiers lost their lives and 20 were wounded in the offensive that began on Sunday, March 8. However, no independent verification of the casualty figures were provided.
Boko Haram had held the towns near the Niger border since November, the areas which is a part of the territory the group had taken over in Nigeria’s northeast, where the its insurgency has been flourishing for six years. Recently the militants strtaed raids into Cameroon, Chad and Niger that compelled Nigeria’s neighbours to retaliate.
Sunday’s strike marks Niger’s first major push into Nigerian territory to combat Boko Haram, military sources hope the operation would open up a new front in regional efforts to eliminate the Islamist group. Chris Olukolade, spokesman for the Nigerian military, has said the Niger and Chad assaults were “complementary to Nigeria’s ongoing push against the terrorists”.
It would be recalled that the African Union on Friday endorsed the creation of a regional force of up to 10,000 men to join the fight against the group which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, ISIS, in an audio message at the weekend.
The regional intervention comes in the midst of Boko Haram attacks that has left hundreds of civilians dead in the past several weeks. On Saturday, at least 51 people were killed and more than 100 injured in three separate bomb blasts at markets and a bus station in the northeastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri.
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