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Dozens of Boko Haram militants were reportedly killed on Sunday when two Chadian army helicopters bombed the sects positions near a village on the border with Niger.
A senior Niger military official told Reuters that the airstrike destroyed several vehicles and motorcycles carrying fighters in the village of Djaboullam, which lies east across the border from the Niger town of Diffa.
“Niger and Chad had received intelligence that a group of Boko Haram fighters had gathered in the border village,” the officer said.
Speaking under condition of anonymity, a Niger military officer said Boko Haram fighters had moved to Djaboullam after they were chased from other towns by the Nigerian army.
Militants were also gathering in other border towns from where they routinely launch mortar rounds into Niger, he said.
“We know they are massing in Malam Fatori, waiting for us to come,” he said, referring to another north-east town about three kilometers (2 miles) from Bosso, the nearest town across the border in Niger.