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Six Nigerien soldiers were killed and three others wounded on Wednesday in southeastern Niger in an attack attributed to the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.
According to the statement by the Interior Ministry read on state radio, the soldiers were killed in “an ambush” at 6:00 local” (5:00 GMT) by “terrorists of Boko Haram” 20 km from the city of Diffa, the regional capital of southeast Niger, which is close to Nigeria.
Several loud explosions followed by heavy gunfire were heard over Tripoli in the early hours of Wednesday, a Reuters reporter said.
The cause of the firing was not immediately clear, but the Libyan capital has been on edge amid speculation that a U.N.-backed unity government was about to travel to Tripoli from Tunisia.
Parallel to ongoing peace talks with Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC, ELN rebels also agreed to formalize peace talks that seek to end more than half a century of violence, the government and rebels announced Wednesday.
The announcement was made in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas by representatives of the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos and the ELN leadership.
Four Congolese soldiers and 12 rebels have been killed in three days of clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the military said on Tuesday.
The violence, which began on Sunday, pitted the army against the Congo-based Rwandan FDLR militia and two groups of Mai-Mai rebels, army spokesman Captain Guillaume Djike told AFP.
The Sudanese army Monday recaptured key positions in the areas held by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement - North (SPLM-N) in South Kordofan state, a militarily official said on Sunday.
SPLM-N spokesperson, Arno Lodi Sunday said that the government troops and allied militias launched last Sunday a simultaneous attack on six of its positions in Um Dorain, Buram, Heiban, and Dalami countries.