Boko Haram

At least 21 people were killed in two separate Boko Haram attacks on villages near the key city of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria, a community leader and a witness said on Feb. 13.
      
"They (Boko Haram) killed 12 people in Akida village and nine others in Mbuta village during a raid," said community leader Mustapha Abbagini.
      

Boko Haram on Feb. 11 launched a pre-dawn raid in Gamboru, northeastern Nigeria, looking to overwhelm Chadian troops who had pushed them out of the border town.
      
The military in N'Djamena said the militants were repelled but the counter-attack was an indication of the task facing regional forces aiming to crush the rebellion.
      

Niger's parliament has unanimously approved the deployment of troops to northern Nigeria as part of a regional offensive against Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has launched several cross-border attacks in recent days.
   

Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, has lived up to his name again. Three minutes after he left an election rally in the northern city of Gombe last week Monday, a suicide bomber blew herself up in the nearby parking lot. "The president had just passed the parking lot and we were trailing behind his convoy when the explosion happened," said a local witness, Mohammed Bolari.

Nigeria's Boko Haram fighters launched a new attack in neighbouring Niger on Feb. 9, as parliament in Niamey was set to vote on joining a regional force against the Islamists.        

Nigeria has postponed its presidential election on security grounds as the Boko Haram conflict intensifies, handing a potential lifeline to the ruling party as it battles a tough challenge from the opposition.
      

Niger is set to send troops to Nigeria for the multi-national battle against Boko Haram after scores of people were killed in a fresh onslaught by the Islamist fighters in a key border town.

Cameroon soldiers clashed with Boko Haram fighters in the border town of Fotokol on Feb. 4 as the Islamists fled an offensive by Chad's army, security sources said.
 

Nigeria's military on Feb. 1 repelled a Boko Haram assault on the key city of Maiduguri as violence raged across the country's northeast just two weeks before national elections.
 
The hours-long attack on the strategic capital of Borno state was the Islamists' second attempt to take Maiduguri in a week.    

Boko Haram fighters on Feb. 1 launched a fresh attempt to take over the strategically crucial northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, a brazen attack on a state capital just two weeks before national elections.