Boko Haram islamists have shot dead six people in a village in south Niger, near the border with Nigeria, a local official said Saturday. “Six people were killed Friday night by Boko Haram at Bague Djaradi,” a village in Toumour commune, the official told AFP, adding the assailants were on foot. Some 27,000 people have been killed and two million displaced, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis in the region. Militants have targeted soldiers and civilians alike, and are blamed for abductions of children and employees of foreign companies. Although Lake Chad forms a natural barrier limiting the group’s easy access across the border from Nigeria the presidents of Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon appealed for international support at a November 29 meeting in Chad’s capital N’Djamena.

Source: The Guardian February 02, 2019 14:26 UTC