Niger Sending Troops to Fight Boko Haram

DAKAR, Senegal — With the regional war against the Boko Haram militant group widening, Niger’s parliament has agreed to send troops across the border to join the fight.

The vote was unanimous in Niger’s National Assembly on Monday night, reflecting the shock produced by at least four attacks in Niger in less than a week, including an explosion at a market in the country’s east that killed a number of civilians.

Chad, Cameroon and Benin have also agreed to contribute troops to an 8,700-member force to fight Boko Haram, a Nigerian militant group whose attacks have increasingly spilled across borders in the region.

With attacks on Boko Haram now coming from the militaries of four countries — Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria — the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, released a video this week on YouTube in which he mocks the forces arrayed against him, especially Chad’s.

“You sent 7, 000 of your soldiers. Why didn’t you send seven million?” Shekau said in the video, according to a translation by the terrorism monitoring group SITE. “Only 7,000!? By Allah, it is small. We can capture them in an attempt or two.”

The New York Times