Niamey - Niger is "in the process of winning the
war" against Boko Haram jihadists who have staged attacks from
neighbouring Nigeria since February last year, the army chief, General Seini
Garba, said on Tuesday.
Boko Haram, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State
group in March, has stepped up attacks on areas of Niger, Chad and Cameroon
that border Nigeria while also continuing a devastating campaign of suicide and
shooting attacks on home soil.
The group's six-year campaign for a hardline Islamic
state in northeast Nigeria has killed at least 17 000 people and made more than
2.6 million others homeless.
"We feel we are in the process of winning the war
even though the terrorist group still has the capacity to harm," state
radio quoted Garba as saying.
"We have made tremendous efforts and we have had
great results in the fight against Boko Haram," Garba said, adding that he
wanted "more success in 2016”.
Garba, however, did not expand on the results obtained in
the Boko Haram fightback, but a humanitarian source said direct clashes between
the group and Niger soldiers had "almost ceased”.
The military was using planes and had established a
network around major cities and towns, making infiltration difficult, the
source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In November, a resident of the flashpoint border region
of Diffa said the group appeared to have "lost its aggressiveness, giving
one the impression that they were staging raids merely to stock up on food.
"Before they used to attack day and night," the
source added.
Niger's Interior Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou had said in
October that the main problem for the army was securing the border with
Nigeria, where according to the UN, there were 74 Boko Haram attacks between
February 6 and December 18 last year.
The Niger army has struggled to stop these raids.
