Not less than eight members of Boko Haram terrorists who attempted slip into Maiduguri, the Borno State capital on Tuesday were eliminated by crack team of the state police command, like reported by thenewsnigeria.com.

The terrorists, riding on a gun truck and motorcycles had infiltrated the area in the evening while Muslims faithful were preparing to break their Ramadan fast and were in a process of setting àblaze a house at Jiddari Polo when the police crack team led by CSP Mohammed Ibrahim suddenly appeared in the area with armoured personnel carrier (APC) according to PR Nigeria.

“Immediately the terrorists sighted the police team, they attempted to escape. While pursuing them, the police armored personnel carrier overran and killed some of them on the spot.

“We counted at least eight dead bodies while many others were scattered to pieces. As we speak their bodies are laying down in Jidari Polo. It was actually a bad outing for the terrorists.

“Items recovered from the terrorists include; Anti Aircraft guns, several AK 47 and one Guntruck belonging to the terrorists.

A reinforcement team comprising of the Nigerian Army, Nigerian police and the Civilian Joint Task Force were later deployed to chase other fleeing terrorists.

About 20 terrorists have been killed and four terror bases destroyed by an ongoing anti-terrorism operation in Burkina Faso since May 5, official news agency AIB reported on Monday.

The Burkina Faso army said the crackdown operation, named Houne, meaning dignity in local language, is being conducted in the terrorist attack prone northern and the Sahel regions of the country.

“About 20 terrorists have been neutralized, four bases destroyed and various equipment seized,” the report said.

According to an internal note of the army, the operation aimed to “neutralize the armed terrorist groups” which have been active in the area.

It also targeted at “securing and reassuring the populations as well as reasserting the State’s authority,” according to the note.

Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been facing deteriorating security situation with terrorist attacks that claimed over 1,000 lives and displaced over a million.

The Somali National Army (SNA) said Monday that its forces killed 10 Al-Shabaab militants in an operation in Hiran, a region in the central part of the country, like reported by nation.africa.com.

Mohamud Hassan, commander of SNA 27th Division, said troops have intensified an onslaught to flush out the Al-Qaeda-allied terror group in the region.

Hassan told Radio Mogadishu that the operation Monday morning was conducted in Omaad, a village in Mahas district where terrorists were hiding.

On Sunday, the SNA said its forces killed seven Al-Shabaab militants and destroyed their hideouts during operations at Qulale, a village near Mahas district.

Hassan said Al-Shabaab suffered huge losses during Monday’s operation in which government troops cut off its supply routes.

In recent days, SNA forces have intensified operations against Al-Shabaab extremists in the southern regions where militants hide, conducting ambushes and planting landmines.

At least six people, including two law enforcement officers, were killed when a suicide bomber targeted a police station in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, the country’s Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism has confirmed according to bignewsnetwork.com.

“Somali PM @MohamedHRoble has condemned the cowardly terrorist attack on Mogadishu’s Waberi district police station that claimed lives of six people including two police officers. The PM extended his condolences to the families and the people of Somalia on the loss of lives,” the Information Ministry said on Twitter.

According to Somali National Television (SNTV), the explosion occurred at Mogadishu’s Waberi Police Station on Sunday evening, when a suicide bomber drove a vehicle filled up with explosives into the front gate of the station.

SNTV said that Waberi police chief Ahmed Bashane and Deputy Commander for Waliyow Adde Police Division Abdi Basid were among the six people killed in the blast.

“I condemn the terrorist attack on the Waberi district police station,” Somalia’s Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble said on Twitter.

Local media reports suggest that several people were wounded in the blast and there are civilian casualties.

The attack comes just days after Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello confirmed the activity of Boko Haram militants in the state.Unknown gunmen have kidnapped over 100 people in Shadadi town in Niger state, killing 8 and leaving 4 injured, like reported by niyitabiti.net.

A source who spoke with BBC Hausa said more than 1, 000 gunmen attacked the town on Wednesday and perpetrated the act.The attack comes just days after Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello confirmed the activity of Boko Haram militants in the state.

The worst place affected by the latest attack is Shadadi town under Mariga Local Government Area where eyewitnesses said thousands of residents have fled the town after the incident.

According to some residents, people who were killed and kidnapped from Wednesday’s attack are up to 100 but the state government said those who were kidnapped are lesser than that.

An eyewitness from another town said the gunmen had arrived in large numbers and started shooting sporadically at the people, killing 8 people instantly while 4 persons sustained injuries.

The resident stated that most of the people in the town have now relocated to neighbouring towns including Kontagora.

The Niger State Commissioner For information, Sani Idris, who confirmed the incident to the BBC, said the number of those killed and kidnapped is not up to 100 as eyewitnesses claimed.

He further stated that the government is still compiling the figures and that the state government is seeking the federal government’s assistance regarding the insecurity disturbing the state.

As of the time of filing this report, it is not clear if the attack was carried out by bandits or Boko Haram militants but both parties have yet to take responsibility for the attack.

The Niger State Governor recently said Boko Haram terrorists hoisted their flag in a part of the state.

The governor said the insurgents also forcibly took the wives of some of the villagers for themselves.

“I am confirming that there are Boko Haram elements here in Niger state, here in Kaure, I am confirming that they have hoisted their flags here.

“Their wives have been seized from them and forcefully attached to Boko Haram members. I just heard that they have placed their flags at Kaure, meaning they have taken over the territory.

“This is what I have been engaging the federal government on, unfortunately, it has now got to this level. If care is not taken, even Abuja is not safe.

“We have been saying this for too long. All our efforts have been in vain,” the governor said.

Bello said the terrorists were trying to turn Niger into another Borno State, which has been their base for some time.

“Sambisa is several kilometres from Abuja but Kaure is just 2 kilometres from Abuja. So, nobody is safe anymore, not even those in Abuja.

“This is the time to act. All hands must be on deck, it is not a fight for Niger state alone,” he said.

The governor however vowed to “take action”, saying he would no longer wait for anybody.

Islamic terrorists killed 15 soldiers and wounded four more on Tuesday in an attack on an army post in southwest Niger, the ministry of defence said on Wednesday.

The attack in north Tillabery region, which borders Mali and Burkina Faso, came two days after gunmen killed 16 soldiers in the nearby Tahoua region of the West African country.

The soldiers were part of a special anti-jihadist force called Operation Almahaou, said Niger’s defence minister in a statement. They were attacked on Tuesday afternoon by heavily armed men on motorcycles, whom he described as “terrorists”.

Several of the assailants were also killed in combat, while others retreated toward the north and are being pursued, said the statement.

The area is overrun by jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, who have killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians since 2018 when they began broadening their reach beyond bases in Mali.

The scale of the violence this year has called into question claims of progress in the fight against Islamist militants by governments in West Africa’s Sahel region and former colonial power France, which has 5,000 troops there to support them.

More than a dozen people, including seven soldiers, were killed by Islamist militants in an attack in northeast Nigeria, four sources told Reuters.

The militants arrived in the Ajiri community in the Mafa local government area of Borno state on motorcycles early on Sunday, killing an army commanding officer and six soldiers, the sources said.

The assailants also killed six civilians, burned down nine housing blocks and carted away valuables, the sources – one soldier, one civilian fighter and two local government officials – told Reuters.

In a statement, the military said troops repelled the attack but that militants killed some residents and two military personnel.

Attacks by Islamist militants have been intensifying in northeast Nigeria in recent months, with dozens of soldiers killed and thousands of Nigerians displaced.

Army spokesman Mohammed Yerima said the military on Saturday repelled another attack on Rann, capital of the Kala Balge local government area of Borno.

Two sources, one soldier and one local resident, said troops killed nine militants. Yerima said in the statement that the troops also captured weapons including an anti-aircraft gun barrel, an AK-47 rifle and different calibres of ammunition.

Armed assailants killed around 30 people in an attack on a village in eastern Burkina Faso on Monday, four security sources said according to reuters.com.

The attack took place in the village of Hantoukoura near the border with Niger in Est region, an area hit by rising insecurity as jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State seek to gain control over once peaceful territories.

In a statement, Est Governor Saidou Sanou said more than 10 civilians and two members of a civilian defence militia were killed by the unidentified attackers, who also torched a number of shops and ransacked the health centre.

But the four sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the death toll stood at around 30, making it one of the deadliest single attacks in Burkina Faso in the past year or more.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.

Jihadist groups have also fuelled religious and ethnic tensions between farming and herding communities in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in order to boost recruitment among marginalised communities.

The worsening violence in the wider Sahel region has led to one of the world’s most acute humanitarian crises, U.N. agencies said last week. Twenty-nine million Sahelians are in need of aid and protection – an all-time high and 5 million more than last year, they said.

Unidentified gunmen have killed 16 soldiers and wounded six others in an ambush in southwest Niger, two security sources said on Sunday.

The attack on an army patrol occurred on Saturday afternoon in the Tahoua region of the West African country, near where raids killed 137 civilians in March.

It is unclear who carried out the attack, but the area is overrun by jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Those groups have killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians since 2018 when they began broadening their reach beyond bases in Mali. Now, large areas of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have fallen under their control.

The number of displaced people in Mozambique has risen to 723,000, Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario announced on Wednesday according to allafrica.com.

Speaking in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, at the start of a question and answer session between the government and the deputies, Rosario said that about 644,000 of the displaced have fled to parts of Cabo Delgado province regarded as safe from terrorist attack, while the rest are in neighbouring provinces, notably Nampula.

The figures also include 8.000 people displaced from their homes in the central province of Manica and Sofala, in attacks by the self-styled “Renamo Military Junta”.

Rosario said the government and its partners are providing humanitarian assistance to 715,000 displaced people living in transit accommodation centres or with host families in the Cabo Delgado provincial capital, Pemba, and the neighbouring districts.

He added that, in coordination with the defence and security forces, the government is providing aid for people who are still living in the districts ravaged by jihadist terrorism, including the town of Palma, attacked by the terrorists on 24 March.

In light of the increased number of internally displaced people, Rosario continued, the government had set up a ministerial working group to coordinate assistance to Cabo Delgado. That working group had drawn up a plan of action in coordination with the local authorities and with international cooperation partners “which contains concrete proposals for boosting humanitarian assistance to the people affected, and establishing conditions for the rapid normalisation of the people’s lives and the resumption of productive activity”.

The humanitarian assistance envisaged in the plan, Rosario continued, must be aimed at “the socio-economic development and recovery of the affected zones in Cabo Delgado”.

For the resumption of productive activity, the plan envisages the distribution of kits of agricultural and fishing inputs, and support for mall scale rural agro-processing industries. “Through this Plan, we want to ensure that the affected population, in the short and medium term can resume their normal life, and cease to depend on humanitarian aid”.

Implementation of actions contained in the plan, Rosario added, “will also create jobs and income opportunities, particularly for young people so that they are not vulnerable to the false promises made by the terrorist groups”.

Terrorism “is a global phenomenon”, said the Prime Minister, and so the government had been stepping up bilateral and multilateral cooperation against terrorism, especially in the framework of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). But “the prime responsibility lies with Mozambicans”.

Hence Mozambique “has been strengthening its domestic capacity on the various fronts of preventing and fighting terrorism including modernization of the operational capacity of the defence and security forces who are engaged in a relentless struggle against the terrorist groups”, declared Rosario.

Mozambicans must respond to terrorism “with just one voice and just one force”, he added. “We are confident that we Mozambicans, united and with the support of the international community, will defeat this threat of terrorism”.