Boko Haram attacks Yobe barracks and Nigerien village

Boko Haram fighters on Sunday waged attacks on a barracks in Yobe State and a southeastern border town in Niger Republic, where a blast killed at least one person and left 10 injured, witnesses and hospital sources said.

The Islamist militants launched their assault around the town of Diffa in Niger before dawn, two days after launching its first major attack on Friday in the area bordering Nigeria, witnesses quoted by AFP said.

The cause of the deadly blast in Diffa was not immediately known, with some sources describing it as a suicide attack while others referred to it as a bomb or a mortar shell.

Similarly members of the terror group were reported to have launched an attack on a military barracks in Gaida, Yobe State.

Although details on the barracks onslaught were sketchy at press time yesterday, sources said they could hear the heavy exchange of gunfire between the terrorists and Nigerian soldiers attempting to defend the military facility.

However, in a bid to stem the attacks in North-eastern Nigeria and neighbouring countries, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroun and Benin Republic at the weekend pledged to deploy 8,700 troops, police and civilians as part of a regional effort to fight Boko Haram terrorists.

“The representatives of Benin, Cameroun, Niger, Nigeria and Chad have announced contributions totalling 8,700 military personnel, police and civilians,” the countries said in a statement after a meeting in Cameroun's capital, Yaounde.

The announcement came out of a three-day summit focused on organising the force that will battle the Islamist militants, who are engaged in a worsening six-year insurgency centred in Northeastern Nigeria.

Credit: Senator Iroegbu/ThisDay