Niamey, Niger | AFP | At least five civilians were killed and several others wounded in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants in southeast Niger, near the border with Nigeria, according to local sources. “The BH (Boko Haram) came to the market place early Friday evening, they shot the …
Read More »Nigerian girls reunited with families after Boko Haram kidnapping
Dapchi, Nigeria | AFP | The schoolgirls kidnapped by the Boko Haram jihadist group in Dapchi, northeastern Nigeria, were reunited with their families on Sunday after spending nearly five weeks in captivity. The 105 girls, covered head to toe in burkas, arrived aboard five buses in the town of Dapchi, in …
Read More »Chad soldier, 20 Boko Haram fighters killed in clash: army source
N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | A Chadian soldier and 20 Boko Haram members were killed in a clash in the restive Lake Chad region near Nigeria, a Chadian military officer told AFP Saturday. The incident occurred on Friday on an islet named Tchoukou Hadje, the officer said, adding that five …
Read More »Nigeria’s Buhari meets with Dapchi girls
Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari received the released Dapchi girls on Friday in a meeting clouded by the absence of a Christian student still held by Boko Haram for refusing to convert to Islam. “We entered into negotiation solely to make sure that no single girl …
Read More »Freed Boko Haram girls in Abuja for debrief and president meeting
Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | More than 100 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram were in Nigeria’s capital on Thursday, a day after their surprise release that fuelled rumours about how their freedom was won. A total of 104 of the 110 students seized from the school in Dapchi, in the …
Read More »Security fears shut boarding schools in NE Nigerian state
Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Boarding schools have been shut indefinitely in the northeast Nigerian state most affected by Boko Haram violence, the government has said, in the latest blow to children’s education. “All boarding secondary schools in the state, with the exception of those in (the state capital) Maiduguri …
Read More »Nigeria was warned before Boko Haram abduction: Amnesty
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s military was on Tuesday accused of ignoring repeated warnings about the movements of Boko Haram fighters before they kidnapped 110 schoolgirls in the country’s restive northeast. The students — the youngest of whom is aged just 10 — were seized from the town of …
Read More »Nigeria promises return of kidnapped schoolgirls
Damaturu, NIGERIA | AFP | Nigeria’s president, in a visit to the country’s troubled northeast, on Monday predicted success in what he described as relentless efforts to release more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. The jihadists are still holding 112 of the 219 students they abducted from the Borno …
Read More »Boko Haram kidnap raises school safety, education fears
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Boko Haram’s abduction of 110 girls in northeast Nigeria has prompted fresh fears about safety at schools, nearly four years after a similar kidnapping led to promises of better security. The disappearance of the students from Dapchi, in Yobe state, on February 19, also threatens …
Read More »Suicide bomber kills three in NE Nigeria: militia
Kano, Nigeria | AFP | A suicide bomber on a bicycle killed three people late on Monday when he detonated his explosives on the outskirts of the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, civilian militia told AFP. Eighteen people were also injured in the attack, which happened in the Muna Dalti …
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