The attack on a Nigerian army position in Chetima Wangou (South-East, Niger, border with Nigeria) by jihadists from Boko Haram left 8 dead and 3 missing, according to a report announced on Monday evening by radio. Nigerien public.
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Local sources announced on Sunday a "major" attack, with wounded soldiers transferred to Diffa hospital but unable to provide an assessment. “On March 7 at around 4:25 pm, the military reconnaissance post of Chétima Wangou in the Diffa region was attacked by Boko Haram elements in about twenty heavily armed vehicles. The provisional assessment is as follows: friends side: eight dead, eight injured, three missing. On the enemy side: almost all of the attackers were neutralized, " said a statement read on the radio.
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"In addition to the losses occasioned by the response of the attacked elements, the Rapid Intervention Force which engaged in pursuit, after three successive skirmishes, recovered a vehicle and destroyed another. The other vehicles (of the attackers) having succeeded in crossing the (Nigerian) border were almost all neutralized by the strikes of aviation by the Multinational Joint Force (Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon) ”.
A region crammed with 120,000 Nigerian refugees
This attack comes after a lull since the end of 2019 in the Diffa region targeted since 2015 by Islamists from Boko Haram. A humanitarian source explained to AFP that the attack was mainly favored by the "partial low water" of the waters of the Komadougou (river border between Niger and Nigeria), which usually prevent the incursions of jihadists.
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In February 2019, seven Nigerien soldiers were killed during an attack from this same position on Chétima Wangou, a small village in the commune of Chétimari, 25 km south-west of the city of Diffa (regional capital). This commune is also close to the Nigerian city of Damasak, taken in 2015 from the Nigerian army by Boko Haram fighters, before being reconquered by soldiers from Chad and Niger.
The Diffa region is home to 120,000 Nigerian refugees and thousands of displaced people fleeing the Boko Haram abuses, according to the UN. In mid-February, around 20 people died and several were injured in a stampede during the distribution of food and money to refugees and displaced persons in Diffa.
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