Boko Haram affected areas

Nigeria's air force said it had killed some senior Boko Haram militants and believed it had fatally wounded the group's leader in a raid on the Islamists' northeast heartland.

The disputed leader of Boko Haram says he is still in charge of Nigeria's militant Islamist group despite a statement by so-called Islamic State that he had been replaced. Abubakar Shekau denounced the IS declaration of Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the leader in an audio message.

The United Nations has accused the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram of "almost unimaginable" violence and brutality in Nigeria. Stephen O'Brien, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator, said the militant group's actions had forced thousands to flee and left unprecedented numbers in need.

Nigeria's army on Sunday said it had freed more than 5,000 people held by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram during an operation over the weekend in the northeast of the country. Nigeria's army has over the last year, sometimes aided by troops from neighbouring countries, recaptured most of the territory that was lost to the group, Й .

Abdou Sidikou Issa, chief of staff for troops based in Niger's southern zone of Diffa, a region plagued by the Islamist militant group, said troops from Chad and Nigeria were involved in the operation.

Chad has sent 2,000 troops to Niger to prepare a counterattack against Boko Haram after the militant group seized a Nigerien town, two senior military sources said on Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in south-east Niger following near back-to-back attacks since this past Friday by Boko Haram insurgents on the town of Bosso in the troubled Diffa region, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

The number of children used by Boko Haram as suicide bombers up tenfold over the past year, the United Nations humanitarian wing has reported, also warning that the groupХs gunmen continue to carry out attacks on civilian and military targets despite the ramped up military operations in the Lake Chad Basin region.

Boko Haram is losing ground, resources and fighters. But defeating the group and preventing a future insurgency needs more than military success. The 14 May summit in Abuja is an opportunity for Nigeria and its Lake Chad basin neighbours to prepare and implement what's been long overdue: a holistic response to the extremist group.

[Й] The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power said Wednesday in Chad's capital, N'Djamena that the United States continues to support the fight against Boko Haram by providing advisors, information, training, logistics support, and equipment to the regional military force set up to counteract the group's attacks and attempts to gain control of more territory.