Earth Science News  
AFRICA NEWS
Suspected jihadists raid Nigeria prison, free hundreds
By John Okunyomih with Patrick Markey in Lagos
Abuja (AFP) July 6, 2022

Six soldiers killed in jihadist attack in southeast Niger
Niamey, 6 Juil 2022 - Suspected jihadists killed six soldiers and wounded 14 others in an attack on a military post in southeast Niger near the border with Chad, the defence ministry said late Tuesday.

The ministry statement read on public radio also mentioned "17 dead on the enemy side" and said "arms and ammunition were recovered by the armed forces combing the area" following the early Tuesday attack in Blabrine, in the Diffa region.

The "provisional report" from the ministry did not identify the attackers, but Niger has faced regular attacks by jihadists from Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province group.

According to the ministry, the attack was carried out from the night of July 4 to July 5 at around 1:00 am but the response from the soldiers "allowed the attack to be repelled and the enemy routed".

It was the second attack in three days in southeast Niger's Diffa region, which borders Chad and Nigeria. A Boko Haram assault on Sunday in Garin Dogo near the border with Nigeria left one soldier dead.

Blabrine borders Chad and its military base has been targeted several times since 2015.

In May 2020, 12 soldiers were killed and 10 wounded during an attack there blamed on Boko Haram, according to an official report.

Just months earlier, in late October 2019, 12 soldiers were killed and eight wounded in an attack on the same base.

During a visit to Garin Dogo at the end of June, President Mohamed Bazoum hailed progress in the fight against Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province jihadists, saying: "We are winning this war."

The Diffa region is home to 300,000 Nigerian refugees and internally displaced people, driven out by jihadist abuses, according to the United Nations.

In the west, Niger also faces Sahelian jihadist groups including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. Attacks targeting civilians and soldiers there are regular and bloody.

Suspected Boko Haram jihadists using guns and explosives have blasted their way into a prison near Nigeria's capital, freeing hundreds of inmates in an operation to release jailed comrades, the government said Wednesday.

Tuesday night's brazen attack on the outskirts of Abuja came hours after an ambush on a presidential security convoy in the northwest, in a fresh illustration of the struggle Nigeria faces to overcome a security crisis.

Residents reported loud explosions and gunfire late Tuesday near the Kuje medium-security prison just outside the capital.

Outside the jail, the burned-out wreckage of a bus and cars marked the scene of the attack, and yellow police tape was stretched across a destroyed part of the prison perimeter.

"We understand they are Boko Haram, they came specifically for their co-conspirators," senior interior ministry official Shuaibu Belgore told reporters on a visit to the prison.

"Right now we have retrieved about 300 out of about 600 who got out of the jail cells."

Boko Haram is one of the jihadist groups involved in Nigeria's grinding 13-year conflict in the country's northeast.

But Nigerian officials sometimes use "Boko Haram" as a general phrase to refer to jihadists or other armed groups.

Defence Minister Bashir Magashi told reporters that Boko Haram militants had "mostly likely" carried out the attack and that 64 jailed jihadists had escaped from the prison.

"None of them are inside the prison, they have all escaped," he said.

Commanders of another jihadist group Ansaru, including the group's chief Khalid Barnawi, had also been kept in Kuje prison since their conviction in 2017.

One security official was killed when the gunmen breached the jail using high-grade explosives.

"We heard shooting on my street. We thought it was armed robbers," a local resident said. "The first explosion came after the shooting. Then a second one sounded and then a third."

Some prisoners surrendered while others were recaptured with military roadblocks set up around the penitentiary.

Security forces sent back around 19 recaptured inmates in a black van on Wednesday morning, an AFP correspondent at the site said.

Former top police commander Abba Kyari, who was being held in Kuje awaiting trial in a high-profile drug smuggling case, was still in custody, corrections service spokesman Abubakar Umar said.

- 'Ambush positions' -

Nigeria's security forces are battling Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) jihadists in the country's northeast, where a 13-year conflict has killed 40,000 people and displaced 2.2 million more.

The overstretched military is also battling heavily armed criminal gangs known locally as bandits who terrorise communities in the northwest and central states with raids and mass kidnappings for ransom.

In the country's southeast, troops are dealing with separatist militias who demand an independant territory for the local ethnic Igbo people.

The Kuje prison raid took place soon after gunmen also ambushed an advance presidential security detail preparing for President Muhammadu Buhari's visit to his home state of northwestern Katsina.

Buhari was not in the convoy, but two officials were slightly wounded in the attack. It was not clear who was responsible.

"The attackers opened fire on the convoy from ambush positions but were repelled," the presidency said in a statement.

Attacks on prisons in Nigeria have happened in the past, with gunmen seeking to free inmates.

More than 1,800 prisoners escaped last year after heavily armed men attacked a prison in southeast Nigeria using explosives.

The attackers blasted their way into the Owerri prison in Imo state, engaging guards in a gun battle before storming the prison. Imo state lies in a region that is a hotbed for separatist groups.

Six soldiers killed in jihadist attack in southeast Niger
Niamey, 6 Juil 2022 - Suspected jihadists killed six soldiers and wounded 14 others in an attack on a military post in southeast Niger near the border with Chad, the defence ministry said late Tuesday.

The ministry statement read on public radio also mentioned "17 dead on the enemy side" and said "arms and ammunition were recovered by the armed forces combing the area" following the early Tuesday attack in Blabrine, in the Diffa region.

The "provisional report" from the ministry did not identify the attackers, but Niger has faced regular attacks by jihadists from Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province group.

According to the ministry, the attack was carried out from the night of July 4 to July 5 at around 1:00 am but the response from the soldiers "allowed the attack to be repelled and the enemy routed".

It was the second attack in three days in southeast Niger's Diffa region, which borders Chad and Nigeria. A Boko Haram assault on Sunday in Garin Dogo near the border with Nigeria left one soldier dead.

Blabrine borders Chad and its military base has been targeted several times since 2015.

In May 2020, 12 soldiers were killed and 10 wounded during an attack there blamed on Boko Haram, according to an official report.

Just months earlier, in late October 2019, 12 soldiers were killed and eight wounded in an attack on the same base.

During a visit to Garin Dogo at the end of June, President Mohamed Bazoum hailed progress in the fight against Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province jihadists, saying: "We are winning this war."

The Diffa region is home to 300,000 Nigerian refugees and internally displaced people, driven out by jihadist abuses, according to the United Nations.

In the west, Niger also faces Sahelian jihadist groups including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. Attacks targeting civilians and soldiers there are regular and bloody.


Related Links
Africa News - Resources, Health, Food


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


AFRICA NEWS
Six soldiers killed in jihadist attack in southeast Niger
Niamey, 6 Juil 2022
Suspected jihadists killed six soldiers and wounded 14 others in an attack on a military post in southeast Niger near the border with Chad, the defence ministry said late Tuesday. The ministry statement read on public radio also mentioned "17 dead on the enemy side" and said "arms and ammunition were recovered by the armed forces combing the area" following the early Tuesday attack in Blabrine, in the Diffa region. The "provisional report" from the ministry did not identify the attackers, but Ni ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

AFRICA NEWS
Billions of people rely on wild species for food, fuel, income: UN

Russia occupies 22% of Ukraine farmland: NASA

Pakistan's prized mango harvest hit by water scarcity

AIR and Nigerian Space Agency sign MOU to collaborate on agriculture monitoring

AFRICA NEWS
Austria and Hungary fight nature to stop lake vanishing

Pacific leaders struggle to keep focus on climate at key summit

'Desperate for water': drought hits Mexican industrial powerhouse

Wellington wastewater a security headache for China

AFRICA NEWS
Scientists link the changing Azores High and the drying Iberian region to anthropogenic climate change

Western US drought brings Great Salt Lake to lowest level on record

Knowing the Earth's energy imbalance is critical in preventing global warming, study finds

Several Iran provinces shutter public buildings over sandstorm pollution

AFRICA NEWS
Using the power of the sun to roast green chile

New photocatalytic membrane that can be cleaned using light energy

Seeing photovoltaic devices in a new light

The structure-performance of bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells

AFRICA NEWS
Study points to Armenian origins of ancient crop with aviation biofuel potential

Solar-powered chemistry uses CO2 and H2O to make feedstock for fuels, chemicals

Technologies boost potential for carbon dioxide conversion to useful products

An unusual triangular molecule that makes jet fuel

AFRICA NEWS
Biden says guns turning US neighborhoods into 'killing fields'

Child among nine killed in Pakistan mine flood

Belgium army steps in as asylum system overwhelmed

Rescuers gather body parts after Italy glacier collapse

AFRICA NEWS
Researchers create tool to evaluate water use for responsibly sourced gas operations

Kurdish Iraq decries 'unjust pressure' from Baghdad in oil row

Why natural gas is not a bridge technology

Natural gas is key to WVU engineer's vision for clean hydrogen energy

AFRICA NEWS
Australia reports no progress on China trade sanctions

Asian stocks up as recession fears ease, yen rises after Abe shooting

Stocks fall, euro nears dollar parity as recession fears build

China banks to repay some customers after mass protests









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.