500000 children are on the run from Boko Haram

Despite years of intimidation by the violent extremist group Boko Haram, the people of southeastern Niger’s Diffa region had never held a summit to confront the threat – perhaps with good reason, Reuters reports.

Boko Haram killed at least 380 civilians in Cameroon since past year , and the country’s security forces have caused dozens more deaths in their pursuit of the Islamic militants, a report from Amnesty global said on Wednesday.

However, AI alleged that while playing an important role in defending people threatened by Boko Haram, the response of the Camerounian security forces has too often been heavy-handed and has failed to put in place all necessary safeguards to prevent crimes under worldwide law and human rights violations being committed during their operations.

But Tine said security forces had responded in kind.

But Barmou said he warned his superiors: “Always keep in mind one fact, that Boko Haram still keeps the ability to regroup very fast, conduct an action and disappear again”. The government has said that 25 died in their first night of detention from asphyxiation, but Amnesty said that another 130 remain missing. In one attack in October, Boko Haram shot or slit the throats of at least 30 people in the border town of Ambchide, Amnesty said.

The United Nations regional humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel region, Mr Toby Lanzer, said thousands of Nigerians who fled to a refugee camp in south-east Niger were in an “atrocious” situation.

Meanwhile, US Special Operations Forces are working in Chad, Nigeria, Niger and elsewhere alongside local partners willing to fight Boko Haram.

“The fate of most of those arrested in these two villages remains unknown”.

Voices were raised over whether former Boko Haram members who had been arrested and set free should be allowed to rejoin their communities.

A final reason getting reliable information on Boko Haram is so hard is that it may not just be the group itself that has an interest in keeping intelligence locked away.

Cameroon’s President has deployed at least 2000 troops of the BIR (Rapid Intervention Battalion) alongside forces from the BIM (Mobile Intervention Battalion) to combat Boko Haram’s violence.

This is the number of letters sent since July 2015 to the Cameroonian authorities raising concerns and requesting updated information.