Terror in impoverished Niger: Boko Haram frenzy embarrasses international community

Terrorist organizations, especially Boko Haram, are spread
throughout one of the poorest countries in the world, the Republic of Niger in
West Africa, where the Sahara constitutes 80% of the country’s territory.
Terrorism strikes Niger
Niger is one of the five countries in West Africa’s Sahel
region, along with Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad, and this region has
become a target of terrorist organizations in recent years, especially the Boko
Haram group, which pledged allegiance to ISIS on March 7, 2015.
The terrorist organization focuses on targeting the
country's security and military forces, trying to destabilize security and create
chaos, killing 174 soldiers between December 2019 and January 2020, according
to ABC News.
The latest operation by Boko Haram targeted a military
center in the country’s southeast, according to a statement issued by the Niger
army on Wednesday, May 20. The attack killed 12 soldiers and wounded 10, while seven
terrorists were killed.
The terrorist organization focuses on attacking this base
continuously, as the same base was subject to a previous attack at the end of
October 2019, which resulted in the injury of eight soldiers and the death of
12 soldiers.
Clashes took place between the army and terrorists in the western
Tillaberi region near the border with Mali in April, killing four soldiers,
wounding 63 terrorists, and burning 50 motorcycles.
In January, terrorists linked to ISIS attacked an army
security post, killing 89 soldiers. This occurred a month after Boko Haram
attacked the city of Inates on the border with Mali, killing 71 soldiers, which
led to the army’s chief of staff being dismissed.
World joins Niger
Niger is seeking to get rid of terrorist organizations, so
it launched Operation Almahaw (Whirlwind) to fight against terrorism, an
operation that puts the security forces in a state of preparedness to counter
terrorist attacks.
Countries around the world, especially France and the
European Union, were quick to assist Niger and the Sahel countries, as the EU
granted the army 13 armored vehicles on March 25, with the aim of helping fight
terrorism.
"These armored combat vehicles will protect our units
deployed in the areas of operations from fire and from ambushes and improvised
explosive devices used by armed terrorist groups," said Niger’s Minister
of National Defense Issoufou Katambe.
France also launched Operation Barkhane in the Sahel states,
including Niger, since February, focusing on the Tillabéri region on the
Niger-Mali border, which saw the killing of 174 soldiers between December 2019
and January 2020.
According to data issued by the ministries of defense in
France and Niger, the operation has significantly succeeded in restoring
security in the region, by neutralizing more than 120 terrorists since the
start of the operation, in addition to confiscating and destroying dozens of vehicles
and bomb-making centers.