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| Africa Subsaharan | |
| Boko Haram Attacks Island on Niger Side of Lake Chad | |
| 2015-02-22 | |
| NIAMEY -- Boko Haram militants attacked an island on Niger's side of Lake Chad but the army repelled them after heavy fighting, residents and security sources said on Saturday. The Lake Chad area - a vast maze of tiny islands and swampland sheltering thousands of Nigerian refugees - is thought to be serving as a hideout for the Islamist insurgent group. “There was heavy weapons and machine gun fire from about 2000 local time,” said a resident of Niger's nearby lakeside town of N'Guigmi, which Boko Haram attempted to seize earlier this month. Niger security sources said several Boko Haram members were killed in the fighting. It was not immediately clear which island had been attacked and whether it was inhabited, but the security sources and residents said it was in Niger and within 50 km (30 miles) of the borders with Chad and Nigeria.
Niger, a poor desert nation, is also seeking to dismantle clandestine Boko Haram networks around its southern border. The defense ministry on Friday raised 2 billion CFA francs ($3.46 million) to help the army fight the jihadists via a telethon campaign. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |