NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Niger's defense ministry says at least five soldiers and 30 Boko Haram militants have been killed after an ambush by the Nigeria-based Islamic extremists led to fighting.

Col. Moustapha Michel Ledru said the attack on soldiers Monday near Toumour, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of the town of Diffa, also injured six soldiers.

He spoke Tuesday night on national television, saying the army captured two extremists along with a large quantity of arms and ammunition.

Ledru also said two soldiers were killed Sept. 8 when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device during a patrol near Barwa locality in the Diffa region.

Boko Haram has been launching attacks across Nigeria's borders into Niger, Chad and Cameroon, which contribute to a multinational force that seeks to counter it. </s> NIAMEY (Reuters) - Thirty members of Boko Haram and five Nigerien soldiers have been killed in fighting in the southeastern Diffa region of Niger, the defense ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday.

The clash took place Monday near the village of Toumour, near Lake Chad and the Nigerian border, an area that has plagued by violence from the Islamist militant group and is under an extended state of emergency.

Boko Haram took the nearby town of Bosso in early June, in an attack that killed 32 soldiers and was the deadliest Boko Haram assault in Niger since April 2015. Since then, Chad has sent troops to help Niger wage a counterattack.

Fighting began on Monday morning when the army fell into an ambush, the statement said, adding that six soldiers were also injured and two militants were captured.

“The Boko Haram fighters were trying to prevent people from praying to mark the feast of sacrifice,” said Laouan Boukar, a resident of Toumour, referring to the important Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha that was on Monday.

Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamic state adhering to strict Sharia law in northeastern Nigeria since 2009. About 2.1 million people have been displaced and thousands have been killed during the insurgency. </s> Niger troops patrol near Diffa on June 16, 2016 following attacks by Boko Haram fighters in the region. By Issouf Sanogo (AFP/File)

Niamey (AFP) - Twenty-two soldiers were killed in an attack probably carried out by jihadists, on a camp in Niger sheltering Malian refugees, a security official told AFP on Friday.

"Some 30 to 40 heavily armed men speaking in Tuareg carried out the attack (on Thursday), killing 22 soldiers," the official said. The UN refugee agency confirmed the death toll. </s> Image copyright Boko Haram Image caption Boko Haram, pictured here in a propaganda video, has carried out many attacks in Borno state

Suspected Islamist militants have stormed a village in north-east Nigeria, killing several people.

Reports on the death toll in Mailari, Borno state, differed. A local militia leader said six people had died but a survivor said up to 19 were killed.

The militants ransacked and looted the village for two hours before leaving, witnesses added.

The Boko Haram jihadist group has carried out numerous attacks in Borno state.

Militia leader Babakura Kolo told AFP news agency that the militants had arrived in trucks late on Saturday, firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

"In the confusion, the Boko Haram gunmen seized six men and slaughtered them," Babakura Kolo said.

"The bodies of the six victims were found this morning (Sunday) when residents returned to the burned village."

Villager Aisami Grema said that police stationed nearby had made no attempt to engage the fighters.

Another villager, Abatcha Umar, said he was not sure if the militants were members of Boko Haram or of the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (Iswap).

He said militants had been seen around the village three days before the attack.

Boko Haram launched its insurgency in 2009 with the aim of establishing an Islamic caliphate in West Africa.

The conflict has reportedly left around 20,000 people dead and displaced at least two million. </s> Seven Niger soldiers were killed and eight others wounded in two separate attacks by Boko Haram Islamists over the past week, the army has said.

The two attacks took place in the southeastern Diffa region near the border with Nigeria, according to a military statement released late on Tuesday.

Five of them were killed in an ambush on Monday morning carried out by "members of the Boko Haram terrorist group" which also left six others wounded.

In an earlier incident on September 8, two soldiers were killed and another two wounded when their patrol vehicle went over "an improvised explosive device", the statement said.

Earlier this month, five villagers were killed and two others wounded in the same area in another attack by the Nigeria-based jihadist group in the first such incident since early June.

Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and border areas of neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, and made more than 2.6 million homeless. </s> NIAMEY (Reuters) - Gunmen killed at least 17 Nigerien troops in an ambush near the Malian border, where several jihadist groups are active, and another 11 soldiers are missing, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.

The attack on Tuesday occurred near the town of Tongo Tongo, where fighters from an Islamic State affiliate killed four U.S. special forces and four Nigerien soldiers in an ambush in October 2017, spokesman Abdourahamane Zakaria told Reuters.

Zakaria did not identify the perpetrators of the attack, which is one of the deadliest against the military in Niger’s west in recent years.

Jihadists, including affiliates of al Qaeda and Islamic State, have stepped up attacks on military and civilian targets across West Africa’s Sahel region this year, particularly along the porous borders between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.

Niger also faces a threat in its southeast from Boko Haram and a splinter group affiliated with Islamic State, which are both based in Nigeria but frequently strike in neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon. </s> NIAMEY — Unidentified gunmen have killed 16 soldiers in an attack on a military camp in western Niger, local residents and security sources said on Tuesday.

The raid occurred on Monday afternoon near the town of Inates, close to the border with Mali, where Islamist militants are active, and in the same region where an ambush by Islamic State’s West African branch killed 28 soldiers in May.

Niger hosts the African Union summit from July 6-9 less than 200 km (125 miles) away in the capital Niamey. In the run-up, the European Union has been training Nigerien forces to respond to militant attacks.

Zakari Insa, the brother of one of the soldiers killed in Monday’s attack, and Souley Marou, a local villager, both said 16 soldiers had died.

Two security sources confirmed the death toll, and one of them said about a dozen vehicles had been stolen. Jihadists have previously launched attacks using vehicles stolen in previous raids.

An army spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Security has deteriorated in recent months across West Africa’s Sahel region, a semi-arid strip of land south of the Sahara. France and the United States have deployed thousands of troops to the region to counter jihadist groups linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda.

The attacks have also helped to stoke ethnic violence between rival farming and herding communities, particularly in Mali and Burkina Faso.

Militants loyal to Adnan Abu Waleed al-Sahrawi, the leader of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, operate along Mali’s border with Burkina Faso and Niger.

In 2017, they killed four members of U.S. special forces and four Nigerien soldiers in an ambush near the village of Tongo Tongo. </s> Unidentified gunmen have killed 16 soldiers in an attack on a military camp in western Niger, local residents and security sources said on Tuesday.

The raid occurred on Monday afternoon near the town of Inates, close to the border with Mali, where Islamist militants are active, and in the same region where an ambush by Islamic State's West African branch killed 28 soldiers in May.

Niger hosts the African Union summit from July 6-9 less than 200 km (125 miles) away in the capital Niamey. In the run-up, the European Union has been training Nigerien forces to respond to militant attacks.

Zakari Insa, the brother of one of the soldiers killed in Monday's attack, and Souley Marou, a local villager, both said 16 soldiers had died.

Two security sources confirmed the death toll, and one of them said about a dozen vehicles had been stolen. Jihadists have previously launched attacks using vehicles stolen in previous raids.

An army spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. </s> Twenty-three soldiers were killed in southwestern Chad on Friday when they came under attack from Boko Haram jihadists, a military official told AFP.

“Boko Haram elements attacked the Chadian army position at around 1 am, killing 23 troops,” the official said.

It is the deadliest attack on the Chadian military by Boko Haram, a jihadist group which launched an insurgency in Nigeria nearly 10 years ago that has spread to neighbouring Niger and Chad.

The Boko Haram revolt has claimed more than 27,000 lives and uprooted more than 1.7 million people.

The attack took place at Dangdala, on the northeastern bank of Lake Chad.

The assailants crossed over from Niger before launching the raid and “made off with military equipment,” the source said.

In southeastern Niger, meanwhile, eight civilians were killed late Thursday in a Boko Haram attack in Karidi, in the Gueskerou district, a local official told AFP Friday.

Gueskerou lies in the Diffa region, which borders Lake Chad, and is one of the worst-hit areas for jihadist attacks in Niger.

A total of 16 troops were killed in attacks on February 16 and March 9, while Niger’s armed forces said it had killed 33 “terrorists” on March 12.

Troops from Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria have been grouped into a mixed, multi-national force to fight Boko Haram.
Clashes near the village of Toumour in Niger's southeast Diffa Region kill at least 30 Boko Haram militants and five Niger Armed Forces soldiers.