A joint military operation between Chad and Niger has killed 123 Boko Haram militants since July and recovered a significant quantity of weapons, Niger's Defence Ministry said on Friday.
Allied
Chadian-Nigerien forces launched an offensive against the Islamists
after a surprise attack in Niger killed 30 of the country's troops in
early June, its deadliest ever attack there.
Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Moustapha Ledru
said 14 of the two nations' own troops had also died and 39 had been
wounded in fighting with the Nigerian militant group over the same
period.
"An important quantity of arms and weapons were recovered," he added.
Boko Haram is waging a guerrilla war to establish a breakaway Islamic caliphate around the Lake Chad region, where Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad meet.
Ledru
said a parallel offensive involving Nigerian forces had recaptured four
towns from the Islamists, whose insurgency has killed thousands and
displaced 2.4 million.
The U.N. humanitarian
coordinator for the region said on Friday that tens of thousands of
people are dying of hunger because insecurity has prevented farmers
tilling the land and made access for aid agencies almost impossible
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