An attack by suspected Islamist Boko Haram fighters in neighbouring Niger Republic has killed at least 38 people, officials say.
The attack took place late on Wednesday night, according to a security source quoted by Reuters.
A member of the local parliament, Bulu Mammadu, also told the BBC that the victims included women and children, shot dead in two different villages.
Boko Haram, based in Nigeria, is currently being tackled by a multinational force, including soldiers from Niger.
On Monday, there was a suspected Boko Haram suicide attack in Chad, which is also supplying soldiers to the multinational force.
Chad responded to that attack with air strikes on suspected Boko Haram positions.
In Niger, Mammadu said that as well as killing people, the militants had burnt down several houses in the two villages of Lamina and Ungumawo, in the Diffa region, close to Nigeria’s border.
But on his Twitter handle on Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari assured Nigerians and their neighbours that the Boko Haram insurgents would soon be defeated.
“I mourn every single death of a Nigerian as a result of terrorism. That is why security is my number one priority. Our efforts to strengthen security cooperation with our neighbours and adjust our own response to Boko Haram will yield results very soon. Our resolve and capacity to end terrorism is much greater than the threat we face. Nigeria will prevail,” Buhari said.
Boko Haram first attacked Niger in February when the government said it repulsed an attack, killing more than 100 of the group’s fighters.
Since being sworn in last month, Buhari has pushed ahead with plans to beef up the multinational force, which will be made up of 7,500 troops.
On Monday, the United States of America’s government, at the 25th African Union Summit pledged the sum of $5m to back Nigeria and its neighbours in their fight against Boko Haram.
Meanwhile, a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Alani Akinrinade (retd.), on Thursday in Kaduna said the Nigerian military was not the solution to the persistent Boko Haram insurgency that had wrecked havoc on the North-East states of Adamawa, Borno, Yobe and other parts of the north.
The one-time Army chief spoke as chairman of a seminar on the Africa’s Big Five, organised by the Gusau Institute, a research library with interest in governance and security, founded by another retired general and former Minister of Defence, Mohammed Ibrahim Gusau.
Akinrinade said, “Let me say a word or two again about Boko Haram; I have heard a lot of discussions about Boko Haram from many people . I must say that I am lost about the causes of Boko Haram and I am sure most of our country men are also lost. I want to charge this institute to take this matter very seriously.
“But I am not aware of any military doctrine that has been put down that has addressed effectively guerrilla warfare, which is easier. But these kinds of insurrection we are now having in our hands have never been addressed by any military doctrine successfully.”
“I am aware that military solution is not going to be the end of Boko Haram. So the ball is in the court of politicians, economists and those that have human sympathy that could bring solution to this crisis.” Agency report
