Hundreds of Boko Haram fighters have killed no fewer than 16 soldiers and injured 9 others in a devastating attack on a military post in southern region of Niger Republic.
The country’s defence ministry in a statement on Wednesday August 25, said 50 attackers from the group were killed in the resulting combat in the West African country’s Diffa region and significant quantities of weapons were recovered.
The military outpost was set up near the village of Baroua after residents who had fled violence in the area were repatriated to their village last July after five years.
Boko Haram and its breakaway faction known as the Islamic State in West Africa Province have launched scores of attacks in Niger since the extremists started their insurgency in neighboring Nigeria in 2009.
More than 6,000 people had returned to Baroua in late June under a programme to encourage roughly 26,000 inhabitants in the region to leave safer villages or UN camps and go back to their homes.
The authorities said they had beefed up security to provide returnees with greater protection.
AFP had reported that on August 16, at least 37 civilians including women and children were killed in an attack on a village by attackers who arrived on motorbikes. Two weeks before, 15 soldiers were killed in an ambush.