[New post] Niger Tells Citizens To Abandon Islands

The government of Niger has ordered inhabitants of islands on Land Chad to evacuate the islands due to deadly attacks by Boko Haram.

At least 74 Nigerien soldiers and civilians were killed when hundreds of the militants aboard motorised canoes attacked the island of Karamga at dawn on April 25.

Dozens of soldiers are still missing following clashes that ultimately drove out the attackers, leaving 156 of them dead.

Residents were told to leave the islands by May 4, according to a statement released by the governor of the region of Diffa.

“Due to security imperatives, the governor of the region of Diffa has the honour of inviting the populations living on the islands in the Nigerien part of Lake Chad to leave the islands and rejoin the mainland,”the statement read.

Karamga, attacked once before by Boko Haram in February, is prized by both sides as a strategic base among a vast maze of waterways and swampland straddling the borders between Niger, Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon.

The attack occurred despite significant military victories by the four countries in winning back territory from Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.

Nigeria’s military has rescued hundreds of women and children who had been kidnapped by the Boko Haram militia and were being detained in Sambisa Forest where the army is attempting to defeat the Islamist group in one of its final strongholds.

On April 28 the troops rescued 293 women and children, and on the next day 160 more people were said to have been freed in the same area.