In a major setback in the battle against Boko Haram, Chad has withdrawn hundreds of troops from neighbouring  Niger, like reported by hebreakingtimes.com.

The Chadian troops were  helping local forces fight Boko Haram  militants in the Diffa region of Niger.

Now humanitarian sources and officials said the pull-out over the past two weeks could weaken a region-wide struggle against the militants who have killed tens of thousands of people, forced many more to flee and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

There was no immediate explanation or comment from defense officials in Chad.

But the move came a month after Chad complained about an unexpected U.S. travel ban imposed on its nationals. Chad warned at the time the order could affect its security commitments – which include its involvement in the U.S.-backed fight against Boko Haram.

Residents said the withdrawal had already had an impact on Niger’s Diffa region, which has seen a string of attacks by Boko Haram militants crossing over from their base in neighboring Nigeria.

Ibrahim Arimi from the border village of Bosso said banditry had increased since the Chadian troops started leaving and he had been temporarily moved to another village for safety.

Diffa parliamentarian Lamido Moumouni said residents had started complaining. “They have come to rely on the forces so there is a perception that security will be lacking,” he said by telephone.

At its peak in 2016 after an attack in Bosso, Chad had 2,000 troops in Niger to help counter Boko Haram although security sources said this has fallen since.

Boko Haram has attacked Chad, Niger and Cameroon from its base in northeast Nigeria. Its eight-year bid to carve out an Islamist caliphate has driven millions from their homes – more than 200,000 of them are now based in Diffa, with little prospect of returning home.

Thousands of them are camped alongside an unfinished highway in the middle of a barren savannah with few resources.

Chad’s soldiers also occupy front-line positions in a peacekeeping force in northern Mali. Falling oil revenues after the price crash in 2014 has also sapped Chad’s appetite for expensive regional security commitments, analysts say.

The militants who ambushed and killed four Nigerien soldiers and four US soldiers on the Niger-Mali border earlier in October were Daesh-affiliated, reported the Pentagon. A new offshoot of the terrorist network has recently sprung up in Mali and Niger, where it has not operated in the past, APA reports.

Anonymous defense officials said that the militants were part of a tribal group that was previously suspected of being affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has proven to be a significant military adversary in West African nations such as Algeria and Mali. AQIM has also perpetrated bloody terrorist acts such as the 2016 assault on a hotel and restaurant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, that left 30 civilians dead.

However, the militants have since rebranded themselves as members of a new branch of Daesh. On October 5, about 30 Nigerien troop were patrolling in unarmored trucks alongside a dozen US Army soldiers, among them Green Beret special forces. The patrol was coming from a meeting with tribal leaders and came within striking distance of the border between Niger and its war-torn neighbor Mali.

The militants rode in on motorcycles and attacked the patrol with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns, killing eight: four Nigeriens, three Green Berets, and another US soldier whose body wasn’t discovered until two days after the attack. The ambushed soldiers exited their vehicles and returned fire, but no militant casualties have been reported.

Speaking before reporters in Tampa, Florida, US Defense Secretary James Mattis spoke about the October 5 ambush. He said that “the enemy has not operated [in that area] before” and that the patrol was “hit hard.” Two Green Berets and eight Nigeriens were injured in the strike.

He also defended the military against the charge that the ambush was worsened by the slow response of air support. The helicopters that evacuated the soldiers were French, as Paris is the main military backer of the Malian government in its battle against militant groups. “I completely reject the idea that that [the response] was slow,” Mattis said.

The French aircraft took 30 minutes to arrive, whereupon they scattered the ambushers and evacuated the US-Niger patrol. “The French pilots were overhead with fast movers with bombs on them ready to help, and helicopters were coming in behind,” Mattis said, adding that a Nigerien force also launched a counterattack against the militants.

Mattis added that US Africa Command will be reevaluating its approach to patrol and training missions in the region in the wake of the bloody ambush, the first US casualties in Africa since the May death of a US service member in the fight against al-Shabaab in Somalia.

“We will look at this and say ‘was there something we have to adapt to now, should we have been in a better stance,'” Mattis said. “We need to always look at this. We’re not complacent, we’re going to be better.”

US military protocol calls for medical evacuations to be completed within one hour of the injury, the so-called “golden hour,” which greatly increases the chances of survival and recovery. However, in remote locations like the site of the ambush this is a challenging goal to meet.

Eight hundred US troops are stationed in Niger, acting in a training and advisory capacity to Niamey’s military as well as flying their own reconnaissance drone missions.

Four suicide bombers were killed in a fail attempt to wreak havoc on Maiduguri residents on Wednesday night, an eyewitness told Saharareporters.

Boko Haram female bombers stormed Ummarari general area on the outskirts of Maiduguri and detonated their IEDs simultaneously at 8:23pm last night.

According to an eyewitness account,  all the bombers were teens and wore new set of clothes to avoid detection.

“We were at our duty place, suddenly we heard a very loud explosion, I quickly climb the fence while on the fence I put on the touch light and spotted three of them standing behind the fence so I raised alarm; then second bomber blew up herself.

He added ” the third also attacked the deserted mosque in Ummarari, there no civilian casualties, however,  State Emergency Management Agency team came to evacuate the bodies of the bombers early morning on Thursday.

Molai general area has suffered a series of suicide attacks in the recent times led to the death of  dozens of civilians.

Islamist group Al-Shabaab attacked a Somali military base killing six soldiers, Garowe Online reported.

Al-Shabaab overpowered the military base in Balad district, southern Somalia, seizing weapons and ammunition. Somali soldiers guarding the barracks fled guarding positions as Al-Shabaab launched the attacked at dawn. There is no confirmation or reports on civilian casualties.

Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has been signed off by the United Nations to counter the threat of Al-Shabaab. The Somali national army are additionally receiving assistance by the United States to conduct counter-terrorism operations against Al-Shabaab.

Somalia has faced internal conflict with the armed group Al-Shabaab, who are affiliated with Al-Qaeda, for over 10 years. Al-Shabaab aims to implement a strict version of Islamic law across the country forcefully, regularly conducting raids and suicide attacks using improvised explosive devices.

Army chief of staff Gen. Mark Milley said the service’s train, advise and assist (TAA) mission will likely grow after four Army Green Berets were killed last week while embedded with soldiers in Niger, like reported by thehill.com.

“We are training, advising and assisting indigenous armies all over the world,” Milley said Monday at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting in Washington.

“And I anticipate and expect that’ll increase, not decrease, in years to come.”

Four Green Berets were killed and two were injured on Oct. 4 after their group of a dozen U.S. soldiers were ambushed while conducting a joint patrol with about 40 Nigerien soldiers. Militants tied to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are suspected to have carried out the attack.

U.S. Africa Command said in a statement last week that the U.S. forces were assisting “Nigerien security force counterterror operations” at the time.

“It is a dangerous mission, TAA missions around the world. It depends on where you are at,” Milley said.

The Army is now working to stand up a new unit that will only take on such missions. The unit will be made up of six “Security Force Assistance Brigades,” which will include 500 noncommissioned and senior officers who meet “Ranger-like standards,” and will focus on countering terrorist groups across the globe.

“They will look and act, in many ways, and be trained similar to Special Forces, but they are not Special Forces,” Milley said.

Milley expects the six brigades will be operational within two years.

The Army’s top officer also said that U.S. Africa Command “is reviewing very closely the security procedures that they are using for these teams that are there in Africa.”

He would not say who was responsible for the attack but added that the military does have information on the group.

Islamist al Shabaab militants attacked a checkpoint in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, killing at least seven people, police said according reuters.com.

The fighters then ambushed officers rushing in to help colleagues on the outskirts of the city of Bosaso, an officer at the scene told Reuters.

Al Shabaab said it took the checkpoint then left, though the police said they fought off the assault.

Al Shabaab has launched a string of attacks on Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and other areas controlled by the federal government in a bid to oust the Western-backed authorities and impose the group’s interpretation of Islamic law.

Attacks are relatively rare in Puntland, which has its own government and security forces patrolling its territory on the northeastern tip of the Horn of Africa, jutting out into the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.

“At about 1 a.m., many well-armed al Shabaab fighters attacked us from all directions in an attempt to capture the checkpoint,” police captain Abdifatah Mohamed said.

Three police and four civilians died and at least 13 others were wounded in the clashes, he said over the phone from the checkpoint.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operation spokesman, said its fighters killed seven soldiers and wounded 11 others.

“We captured the Bosaso checkpoint and left this morning. We also ambushed a police reinforcement,” he said.

Puntland is also home to a splinter group of al Shabaab that has sworn allegiance to Islamic State. Security sources say a small contingent of foreign fighters is based there.

The Nigerian Army at the weekend said its troops had killed two Boko Haram insurgents at Mayanti village of Bama Local Government Council of Borno State, like reported by thisdaylive.com.

The Deputy Director, Army Public Rations, 7 Division, Kingsley Samuel, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri the troops had ambushed a group of insurgents while trying to cross into the Sambisa Forest.

He explained that the troops neutralised two insurgents while many others escaped with gunshot wounds, adding that some food items were also recovered from the insurgents.

“The Mobile Strike Teams (MSTs) of Operation LAFIYA DOLE resolve to rout out the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists.

“MST yielded yet another result with the troops successfully ambushed unsuspecting terrorists at about 10:45p.m. on Friday, October 6, 2017.

“The insurgents were attempting to cross into Sambisa Forest from Mayanti village in Bama Local Government Area of Borno State.

“The troops sprung the ambush on the terrorists and neutralised two of them, while several others escaped with gunshot wounds. The troops also recovered two bags of maize from the ambush site.

“The MST has been a potent deadly mobile lethal force engaging and neutralising the insurgents in several staging areas.”

Military operations were underway near Niger’s border with Mali after an attack by unidentified assailants which killed three members of the US Army Special Forces and five Nigerien soldiers, security sources said and like reported by bernama.com.

The attack, which also wounded two US soldiers, took place during a routine patrol in a part of southwestern Niger where there are known to be insurgents, including from al Qaeda in Islamic (AQIM), a US official said.

Nigerien, US and French troops were conducting military operations in the zone on Thursday, a Nigerien security source said without providing additional details.

An official at Mali’s defence ministry said military operations were taking place within Niger and that Malian forces had reinforced their checkpoints along the border.

According to a Nigerien diplomatic source, those who carried out Wednesday’s attack came from Mali.

Jihadist groups form part of a growing regional insurgency in the poor, sparsely populated deserts of West Africa’s Sahel. They have stepped up attacks on UN peacekeepers, Malian soldiers and civilian targets after being driven back in northern Mali by a French-led military intervention in 2013.

Malian militant groups have expanded their reach into neighbouring countries, including Niger, where a series of attacks by armed groups led the government in March to declare a state of emergency in the southwest.

A relatively new militant group called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has also claimed some recent attacks.

French and Nigerien troops conducted operations near Niger’s border with Mali on Thursday, the day after an attack that killed three U.S. Army Special Forces members, security sources said according to reuters.com.

The attack, which also wounded two U.S. soldiers and killed at least one Nigerien soldier, took place during a routine patrol in a part of southwestern Niger where insurgents, including from al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), are active, a U.S. official told Reuters.

Nigerien, U.S. and French troops were leading operations in the zone on Thursday, a Niger security source said, without elaborating. A Western security source also said that French troops, part of a roughly 4,000-strong French force in the zone, were deployed alongside Nigerien forces.

“It’s not clear if the attackers knew the Americans were present,” said the Western security source. “Initial information suggests there was a trap that appeared designed to get them out of their vehicles and then they opened fire.”

The source said al Qaeda and a relatively new militant group called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara were the two main suspects, although no one had yet claimed responsibility.

Two additional Niger security sources said that four military helicopters had been dispatched to the area and that reinforcements arrived on Thursday morning in the Tillaberi region where the attack took place.

A Nigerien regional official said on Wednesday five Niger soldiers were killed in the attack although a statement by U.S. Africa Command on Thursday said that only one “partner nation member” had died.

In a speech on Thursday, Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou condemned the attack. “Our country has just been the victim of a terrorist attack that claimed a large number of victims,” he said.

Islamist militants form part of a growing regional insurgency in the poor, sparsely populated deserts of West Africa’s Sahel. Jihadists have stepped up attacks on U.N. peacekeepers, Malian soldiers and civilian targets since being driven back in northern Mali by a French-led military intervention in 2013.

Malian militant groups have expanded their reach into neighbouring countries, including Niger, where a series of attacks by armed groups led the government in March to declare a state of emergency in the southwest.

The European Union has pledged tens of millions of euros to a new regional force of five Sahelian countries – Niger, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania – in a bid to contain Islamist militant groups, and the United States also views the region as a growing priority.

Andrew Lebovich, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Wednesday’s attack revealed how U.S. training of Nigerien forces “has accelerated and also verged into ongoing military operations”.

The United States operates surveillance drones out of central Niger and said last year it was building a new $100 million base to boost efforts by its ally to combat jihadists and better protect its porous borders.

It has also sent troops to supply intelligence and other assistance to a multinational force battling Nigerian Boko Haram militants near Niger’s border with Nigeria.