Niger police says over 500 Boko Haram terrorists killed since February

Niger says it has killed more than 500 members of the Boko Haram terrorist group since February 2015. Niger's police spokesman Captain Adili Toro said on Wednesday that some 513 terrorists had been killed since February 8, adding this number does not take into account those killed in land and air operations launched on Sunday jointly by the armies of Niger and Chad against Boko Haram militants in Nigeria. Niger has also lost 24 soldiers in the operations that have also killed at least one civilian and wounded 38 soldiers, Toro stated.On March 8, Nigerien and Chadian military forces launched a joint operation against the Takfiri terrorist group in northeastern Nigeria. The military operation took place following the African Union's final decision to establish a regional force of up to 10,000 men to battle the terrorist group, which has pledged allegiance to ISIL Takfiris.

 Boko Haram in Nigeria is a child of Nigerian history and the impunity of Northern Nigeria’s Military establishment. Armed conflict is part of Nigeria history. It is also a business which has enriched many.  People including generations unborn learn from history. The savaged brutality meted on civilians and civilian objects in Nigeria pre-exist Boko Haram. These acts of impunity were some of the methods deployed by successive military regimes, most of them from Northern Generals to accede and sustain power. The ongoing slaughter by Boko Haram follows the same pattern which in 1966 led to the Nigeria/Biafra War. The underlying cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Southerners, mainly of the Ibo ethnic groups in the North was never comprehensively investigated, if at all.  There is no gainsaying that had the crimes been investigated, the result would have pointed to some powerful individuals within the Nigerian Military structure of Northern origin. For these, political power and control of the economy could only be attained through scapegoating communities whom they perceived as serious competitors.