... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...Lions of Islam since the Niger government started an operation against the group last week, the defence ministry said.
Boko Haram has attacked Niger, Chad and Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
from its base in northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
, where it has been fighting for more than nine years to carve out an Islamist caliphate.
Niger's defence ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the army mounted a sweep operation against the group last Friday along the southeastern Komadugu river, which separates Niger from Nigeria.
More than 200 Lions of Islam were "neutralized" by air strikes and 87 were killed by Nigerien troops on the ground, it said.
In June 2016, more than 30 Nigerien soldiers were killed during a Boko Haram attack on the town of Bosso, prompting Chad to send 2,000 troops to help its West African neighbour counter the hard boys.
Those troops were withdrawn in October 2017, raising concern about security in the Diffa region.