| 2021 Diffa raid | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Boko Haram insurgency | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Niger |  Boko Haram | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | 15-20 vehicles | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 4 killed, 9 injured | 6 killed | ||||||
| 4 civilians killed, 5 injured | |||||||
On May 29, 2021, jihadists from Boko Haram based along the Nigerien-Nigerian border launched a raid into the city of Diffa, but were repelled by Nigerien soldiers.
The city of Diffa, capital of Niger's Diffa Region and located along the Niger river that makes up the Niger-Nigerian border, has been attacked several times since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2015. [1] In May 2020, clashes broke out along the Doutchi Bridge in Doutchi, which links Niger to Nigeria. [1] Diffa had a pre-war population of 200,000 people, but since the insurgency began 300,000 refugees have fled to the city. [2]
On May 22, unknown bandits ambushed a Nigerien security post along the RN1 highway between Mainé-Soroa and Diffa, killing one policeman and kidnapping another. [3]
The attack began between 3pm and 4pm on May 29, with the ISWAP fighters originating from the village of Bagara south of Diffa. [4] The jihadists' invasion was halted by Nigerien FDS located between Bagara and Diffa, sparking battles. [5] The Boko Haram fighters conducted the attack with fifteen to twenty vehicles. [4] [5] While the attack was repelled by the Nigerien forces, thousands of panicked civilians fled the area in anticipation of more attacks. [5]
Nigerien forces later reported that four FDS soldiers were killed and nine were injured, and that four civilians were killed and five were injured. [6] Nigerien forces reported that at least six militants were killed in the attack, and officials released a photoset of captured vehicles and weaponry. [7] [4] [6]
Boko Haram, officially known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād, is an Islamist jihadist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, which is also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali. In 2016, the group split, resulting in the emergence of a hostile faction known as the Islamic State's West Africa Province.
The Boko Haram insurgency began in July 2009, when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. The conflict is taking place within the context of long-standing issues of religious violence between Nigeria's Muslim and Christian communities, and the insurgents' ultimate aim is to establish an Islamic state in the region.
Abu Mohammed Abubakar al-Sheikawi was a Nigerian militant who was the leader of Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, from 2009 to 2021. He served as deputy leader to the group's founder, Mohammed Yusuf, until Yusuf's execution in 2009.
Timeline of the Boko Haram insurgency is the chronology of the Boko Haram insurgency, an ongoing armed conflict between Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram and the Nigerian government. Boko Haram have carried out many attacks against the military, police and civilians since 2009, mostly in Nigeria. The low-intensity conflict is centred on Borno State. It peaked in the mid-2010s, when Boko Haram extended their insurgency into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
The 2015 Niger raid was an unsuccessful assault on the Nigerien towns Bosso and Diffa, perpetrated by Boko Haram. The incident occurred on 6 February 2015, marking the first major Boko Haram incursion into Niger.
The Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP), officially Wilāyat Garb Ifrīqīyā, meaning "West African Province", is a militant group and administrative division of the Islamic State (IS), a Salafi jihadist militant group and unrecognised quasi-state. ISWAP is primarily active in the Chad Basin, and fights an extensive insurgency against the states of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Turkey. It is an offshoot of Boko Haram with which it has a violent rivalry; Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau killed himself in battle with ISWAP in 2021. Until March 2022, ISWAP acted as an umbrella organization for all IS factions in West Africa including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS), although the actual ties between ISWAP and IS-GS were limited.
The Chibok ambush was an attack of Boko Haram insurgents against a Nigerian Army convoy in the night from 13 to 14 May 2014, as the latter was searching for schoolgirls who had been kidnapped by the Islamist rebels. Even though the Nigerian Army forces managed to extricate themselves from the ambush, the attack seriously affected the morale of the involved soldiers who felt that their leadership was carelessly sacrificing them in the war against the insurgents. As result, elements of the Nigerian Army's 7th Division subsequently mutinied at Maiduguri and almost killed their own commander, "humiliat[ing] the Nigerian military".
The US military intervention in Niger was the deployment of special operations forces and unmanned aerial vehicles by the United States in support of the Nigerien government and French military in counter-terrorism operations against militant groups in Niger as part of Operation Juniper Shield. The deployment of U.S. forces in Niger and in the greater West Africa region involved the training of host nation partner forces, enhancement of host nation security assistance efforts, and facilitated counter-terrorism and surveillance and reconnaissance missions in support of host nation partner forces. The U.S. deployed drones from the Air Force and CIA in order to assist American and Nigerien forces in counter-terrorism operations, monitor routes used by militants in Niger into neighboring nations, and to assist operations in Libya.
The Chad Basin campaign of 2018–2020 was a series of battles and offensives in the southern Chad Basin, particularly northeastern Nigeria, which took place amid the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency. The Chad Basin witnessed an upsurge of insurgent activity from early November 2018, as rebels belonging to the Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram launched offensives and several raids to regain military strength and seize territory in a renewed attempt to establish an Islamic state in the region. These attacks, especially those by ISWAP, met with considerable success and resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The member states of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF), namely Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon responded to the increased insurgent activity with counter-offensives. These operations repulsed the rebels in many areas but failed to fully contain the insurgency.
This article lists events from the year 2020 in Niger.
Since 2015, the border area between Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger has been a hotbed for jihadist forces originating from Mali. The insurgency has taken place in two distinct regions of Niger. In southwest, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and the Nusrat al-Islam have carried out attacks in the tri-border area with Burkina Faso and Mali. Meanwhile, in the southeast, the Islamic State in the West African Province has established control in parts of southern Niger.
This article lists events from the year 2021 in Niger.
Operation Boma's Wrath was a military operation launched by Chad against Boko Haram. Operation was launched on March 31, 2020, one week after Boko Haram's attack on Chadian military base in which 92 Chadian soldiers were killed. Aim of the operation was to destroy hidden jihadist bases and repulse their forces out of Chad. Operation lasted 10 days and according to Chadian military it resulted in roughly 1000 insurgents killed, their bases in Chad destroyed, and capture of arms caches previously taken from Chad.
On 25 April 2021, a large group of ISWAP insurgents killed 33 soldiers in Mainok, a town 36 miles west of Maiduguri in Borno State, Nigeria.
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On June 13, 2020, the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP) launched five coordinated attacks on different locations across Borno State, Nigeria. Four of the attacks took place in Monguno and one took place in the village of Goni Usmanti in Nganzai LGA, and over sixty people were killed in the attacks.
On September 2, 2020, jihadists from Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP) ambushed Nigerian soldiers near the village of Garin Giwa, Kukawa, Borno State, Nigeria.