Residents live in a state of siege, frightened and struggling with the economic impact of the Islamist threat. Seven years after the first Boko Haram attacks in southeastern Niger, people in the city of Diffa, dare not even speak the group’s name. The fear is well-founded, according to one security source who says Boko Haram sympathisers in the city pass on information to the group. Among the poorest countries in the world, Niger, which is holding presidential elections on Sunday, faces jihadist groups from the Sahel in the west and Boko Haram in the east. Authorities, meanwhile, believe they are winning “the war” against Boko Haram and the former Minister Mohamed Bazoum, a frontrunner in the presidential polls, has even promised that the refugees and internally displaced will be returned home before the end of 2021.

Source: The Hindu December 26, 2020 22:30 UTC