They arrive daily by hundreds Niger. These refugees have left their villages in northern Nigeria to escape attacks without thank you from the Islamist sect Boko Haram.
"We were overwhelmed by Boko Haram. I heard gunshots and I went out of my house. I saw two dead bodies, so I took my baby, and I ran away, "said the Nigerian refugee.
In January, 153,000 Nigerians have fled to neighboring countries. With 100,000 of these refugees, Niger, the poorest country in the world, is the first question. "This week, the World Food Programme sounded the alarm. The agency expects to meet the needs of more than 230,000 people in the Lake Chad region this year. "The situation is critical and alarming when you consider that one in two across the border experiencing food insecurity and one in three children is malnourished" admits Antonio Avella, a member of the agency.
Given the urgency, Niger, Benin, Cameroon and Chad have agreed with Nigeria to create a regional military force of 8,700 men. Its mission: to crush Boko Haram in six weeks, in order to secure the presidential and legislative elections in Nigeria, postponed to March 28.
While the sect multiplied its attacks beyond the borders of Nigeria, the Chadian army has already intervened successfully in Cameroon.
General Chadian Ahmat Dari Bazine is determined:
"Our armed forces always defend, ever forward, against any enemy. We are ready to face them. These are small bandits, thugs, it is a criminal cult. This is not an army that respects international conventions. "
And this is what makes the strength of Boko Haram. Repulsed by the insurgents attacked elsewhere, alternating relentless armed offensive and activation of dormant cells, as here in Diffa in Niger. In four days, the city was overshadowed by three assaults and bomb attack on a market.
In a posting propaganda video on Monday, the leader of the sect, Abubakar Shekau mocks the African coalition, putting the challenge to accomplish in six weeks that the Nigerian Army could not do in six years .
Since 2009, the Boko Haram insurgency and its repression have made more than 13,000 dead and 1.5 million displaced people in Nigeria alone.
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