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According to the Ministry of National Defense, nine soldiers were injured in the attack in the Diffa area of the country.
The Ministry of Defense stated that hundreds of Boko Haram fighters attacked a military post in southern Niger, killing 16 soldiers and wounding 9 others.
The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that about 50 attackers of the organization were killed in fighting in the Diffa area of the West African country and recovered a large number of weapons.
Boko Haram launched an uprising in northeastern Nigeria in 2009, but violence often spread to neighboring countries Chad, Niger, and Cameroon in the Lake Chad Basin.
The target of the attack late Tuesday was the town of Barua, where thousands of residents had just returned after taking refuge elsewhere after the 2015 rebel massacre.
According to a plan to encourage approximately 26,000 residents of the area to leave safer villages or UN camps and return to their homes, more than 6,000 returned to Barua in late June.
The authorities stated that they have strengthened security measures to provide greater protection for returnees.
On Facebook, a local group called “Diffa Youth” (Diffa Youth) closely reported on security issues in southeastern Niger, saying that it “resolutely repelled the enemy’s offensive.”
As the world’s poorest country as the benchmark of the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), Niger is facing insurgent attacks on two borders.
The southeastern part of the country near the marshland of Lake Chad is being attacked by fighters from Nigeria’s Boko Haram and its separatist group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
The Diffa area has hosted approximately 300,000 Nigerian refugees and local displaced Nigers.
At the same time, western Niger is fighting bloody cross-border attacks by armed groups in neighboring Mali, including followers of the Islamic State of the Greater Sahara (ISGS).
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