Boko Haram affected areas

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.

American military officials say that two of the worldХs most feared terrorist groups С the Islamic State and Boko Haram С have begun to collaborate more closely, raising alarm that they are working together to attack American allies in North and Central Africa.

A rehabilitation camp for hundreds of Boko Haram Islamists who have surrendered to the Nigerian military is set to open later in April, a military spokesman said. More than 800 fighters are expected to receive rehabilitation and skills training in the camp, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar said.

Cameroon says a regional force arrested more than 300 Boko Haram fighters and freed at least 2,000 people in the first five days of an operation to flush the terrorists from their remaining hideouts along the borders of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

A Cameroon military commander says an operation has been launched to rid the country of Boko Haram militants "once and for all." Gen. Jacob Kodji said Thursday that the operation С code-named Tentacle С involved thousands of soldiers working with Nigerian soldiers on the other side of the Cameroon's northern border.

[Й] Retired General Dan Ali said Wednesday the military has reclaimed much of the land once occupied by the terrorist group and that Boko Haram has been reduced to waging mostly guerrilla warfare.