NIAMEY, Nigeria: Niger said Wednesday it had killed 33 Boko Haram “terrorists” and seized vehicles and weapons in an operation in the Lake Chad region in the country’s southeast.
“Offensive actions carried out on Tuesday inflicted heavy losses on the enemy,” a defense ministry statement read on state television said.
“Thirty-three terrorists (were) killed” while there were no losses on the army’s side, it said.
An “armored vehicle” was destroyed, while two other vehicles, two motorcycles, a 120-millimeter mortar, 10 AK-47 assault rifles, two 60mm shells and 3,736 rounds of all calibres were seized, it said.
The operation began on Saturday, it said — a day after seven police and 38 militants were killed near Gueskerou in the southeastern region of Diffa, according to a government toll.
Diffa borders the birthplace of Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria and has suffered a string of cross-border raids and population displacement.
An estimated 27,000 people have been killed and two million others displaced since Boko Haram launched its insurgency in 2009.
Lake Chad, which straddles parts of Niger, Nigeria and Chad, has borne the brunt of the militants’ hit-and-run attacks.
In November, around a dozen girls were taken in raids on several border villages, while seven local employees of a French drilling firm and a government official were killed after suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed their compound.
On February 16, seven Nigerien soldiers were killed in an attack on the border village of Chetima Wangou.
A year-end government offensive, combining land and air forces, killed more than 280 militants, Niger’s armed forces maintained on January 3.
Niger says it killed 33 Boko Haram ‘terrorists’
Niger says it killed 33 Boko Haram ‘terrorists’
- An estimated 27,000 people have been killed and two million others displaced since Boko Haram launched its insurgency in 2009
- Lake Chad, which straddles parts of Niger, Nigeria and Chad, has borne the brunt of the militants’ hit-and-run attacks
Italian police fire tear gas as protesters clash near Winter Olympics hockey venue
- Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue
MILAN: Italian police fired tear gas and a water cannon at dozens of protesters who threw firecrackers and tried to access a highway near a Winter Olympics venue on Saturday.
The brief confrontation came at the end of a peaceful march by thousands against the environmental impact of the Games and the presence of US agents in Italy.
Police held off the violent demonstrators, who appeared to be trying to reach the Santagiulia Olympic ice hockey rink, after the skirmish. By then, the larger peaceful protest, including families with small children and students, had dispersed.
Earlier, a group of masked protesters had set off smoke bombs and firecrackers on a bridge overlooking a construction site about 800 meters (a half-mile) from the Olympic Village that’s housing around 1,500 athletes.
Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue. A heavy police presence guarded the entire route.
There was no indication that the protest and resulting road closure interfered with athletes’ transfers to their events, all on the outskirts of Milan.
The demonstration coincided with US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Milan as head of the American delegation that attended the opening ceremony on Friday.
He and his family visited Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” closer to the city center, far from the protest, which also was against the deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to provide security to the US delegation.
US Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the US is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.
At the larger, peaceful demonstration, which police said numbered 10,000, people carried cardboard cutouts to represent trees felled to build the new bobsled run in Cortina. A group of dancers performed to beating drums. Music blasted from a truck leading the march, one a profanity-laced anti-ICE anthem.
“Let’s take back the cities and free the mountains,” read a banner by a group calling itself the Unsustainable Olympic Committee. Another group called the Association of Proletariat Excursionists organized the cutout trees.
“They bypassed the laws that usually are needed for major infrastructure project, citing urgency for the Games,” said protester Guido Maffioli, who expressed concern that the private entity organizing the Games would eventually pass on debt to Italian taxpayers.
Homemade signs read “Get out of the Games: Genocide States, Fascist Police and Polluting Sponsors,” the final one a reference to fossil fuel companies that are sponsors of the Games. One woman carried an artificial tree on her back decorated with the sign: “Infernal Olympics.”
The demonstration followed another last week when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.
Like last week, demonstrators Saturday said they were opposed to ICE agents’ presence, despite official statements that a small number of agents from an investigative arm would be present in US diplomatic territory, and not operational on the streets.
