BREAKING NEWS

Niger extends state of emergency in Diffa region hit by Boko Haram

NIAMEY - Niger has extended a state of emergency in the southeastern region of Diffa for three months after a series of attacks by Boko Haram, the government said late on Friday.
Attacks by Boko Haram since late May have emptied the towns of Bosso and Yebi near the Nigeria border in the Lake Chad region. Some 69,000 have fled, according to a report on Friday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"Despite the various extensions of the state of emergency in the region of Diffa and bloody setbacks inflicted on it, the Boko Haram sect still continues to have a destructive capacity as evidenced by the recent attacks in Bosso," the government said in a statement.
Boko Haram took the town of Bosso near the Nigerian border in early June, in an attack that killed 30 soldiers from Niger and two. It was the deadliest assault in Niger by Boko Haram since April 2015. Since then, Chad has sent troops to help Niger wage a counterattack.