4 Dead As Daring Boko Haram Militants Attack Prison in Diffa, Niger Republic

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Suspected Boko Haram militants launched an attack on the prison in the southern Niger town of Diffa late on Saturday, military sources said, in an apparent bid to free fellow members of the Nigerian Islamist group held there.

Niger Republic Arrest, Charge Over 600 For Boko Haram Links

Niamey - Niger has detained and charged 643 people since February for their links to the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, Security Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou told parliament.

Niger has deployed 3 000 soldiers to a joint regional force formed with Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria in order to quash the Boko Haram insurgency, in which thousands have been killed.

Several Boko Haram networks and sleeper cells have been dismantled in Niger's southern Diffa region, which is on the border with Nigeria, since a state of emergency was declared there in February and troops deployed, Massaoudou said.

"If this measure had not been taken, we could have had an uprising in the very interior of Diffa," the minister told parliament late on Tuesday.

Those arrested and detained have been charged with acts of terrorism and criminal conspiracy, he said.

Diffa came under heavy attack in February when Boko Haram, which wants to establish an emirate in northern Nigeria carried out attacks in neighbouring countries.

Boko Haram, which loosely translates as "Western education is sinful" in the northern Hausa language, began an insurgency in 2009 to establish a state adhering to strict sharia law.

Source:
news24.com

Boko Haram Remote Controlled Bomb Kills Two Niger Soldiers

NIAMEY, March 4 (Reuters) - A bomb planted and remotely detonated by Boko Haram militants near the southeastern Niger town of Diffa has killed two soldiers and wounded a third, Niger military sources said on Wednesday.

Boko Haram Attacks Niger Prison Before A Crucial Vote

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Islamist fighters from Nigeria's Boko Haram sect attacked a prison in neighbouring Niger overnight, hours before Niger's parliament was due to vote on joining a regional offensive against the militants, witnesses said.