Niger army claims to have killed a Boko Haram leader

Bakura was killed during a "surgical operation" on an island in the Diffa region of southeast Niger last week, a statement read.

He led a splinter group loyal to former Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, refusing to join rival faction the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), moving to the islands on the Niger side of the lake with his fighters.

Boko Haram's insurgency against the government to establish an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria began in 2009, and has to date left some 40,000 people dead and forced more than two million to flee their homes.

The bitter conflict has also spilled across Nigeria's borders, with Niger suffering its first attacks by the group in Bosso, on the shores of the lake in 2015.

The Niger army said in its statement that Bakura was targeted by a fighter jet early on August 15, calling him a "feared leader" of the group.

"Very early in the morning of August 15 an air force fighter aircraft launched three targeted and successive strikes on the positions Bakura used to occupy in Shilawa," it added.

Bakura, whose real name was given as Ibrahim Mahamadu, was said to be about 40 and originally from Nigeria, the Niger army said.

He joined Boko Haram more than 13 years ago and took over leadership of the group after Shekau's death during jihadist infighting in May 2021.