Nine killed in suspected Boko Haram attack in Niger

PHOTO: AFP

Nine people were killed and dozens kidnapped after an attack in southeastern Niger by suspected members of Boko Haram, local authorities said Monday.


The attack happened Sunday night, between 2100-2200 GMT. “About 30 to 40 women and children were taken by the assailants,” local mayor Abari El Hadj Daouda told AFP, adding that Nigerien authorities were headed to the area to investigate.


The attack took place in Kabalewa, a village near the southeastern Niger city of Diffa, which is close to Nigeria — the second such attack in the village in a week.


On Wednesday, two women bombers blew themselves up in a refugee camp in the town, killing two other people and injuring 11, in an act also blamed on Boko Haram Islamists.


Boko Haram’s insurgency began in northeast Nigeria and has spread to Chad, Cameroon and Niger, claiming more than 20,000 lives and displacing 2.6 million people.


The group’s members have since 2015 been staging regular attacks in the Diffa region, where Niger has declared a state of emergency.


There are more than 300,000 refugees and displaced people sheltered in the area, but authorities said they are planning to transfer thousands of refugees and displaced to camps farther from Nigeria’s border.