NIGER

Boko Haram released a video Tuesday that showed militants threatening to "capture" Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military leader who was elected to office after he vowed to eradicate the group. 

Nigeria’s air force said it had killed some senior Boko Haram militants in a raid on the Islamists’ northeast heartland.

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said a regional terror group wants him dead.

Eight Boko Haram members were also killed in Operation Lafiya Dole in the country’s northeastern Borno state, the Nigerian army said Sunday.

The heads of about a dozen states discussed the setting up of a joint force to tackle outfits like Boko Haram, which has claimed over 20,000 lives in the past six years.

Bosso is part of the Diffa region, which is home to many refugees and internally displaced people who have sought to avoid Boko Haram violence.

Serah Luka was among 97 women and children rescued Thursday after clashes between soldiers and Boko Haram militants in northeastern Nigeria.

The Security Council was set to meet Saturday in Nigeria to evaluate efforts to combat the extremist group, which has been active in the country since 2009.

A severe fuel shortage is behind the move by the Nigeria-based terrorist group, say civilian and military sources in the African nation.

The military conducted the vast operation with Cameroonian troops from the Multinational Joint Task Force, whose mandate is to end Boko Haram’s brutal insurgency.

In an online statement released Tuesday, the Nigerian military urged other militants to abandon the Islamic insurgency.

“You should know that there is no truce, there is no negotiations,” one of the unidentified masked men reportedly said in the video.

The meeting marks a continued shift in bilateral relations that faltered under Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan.

Nigerian senior army officer Col. Samaila Inusa was kidnapped from his car Saturday night in Kaduna near the state-run NNPC oil refinery junction.

Over the last few days, Nigerian troops have been carrying out operations in several villages in the country's northeast.

Niger and Benin in West Africa held presidential runoff polls Sunday, while the Republic of Congo in Central Africa held its first round of voting.

Former British High Commissioner to Nigeria Andrew Pocock said the U.K. and U.S. located about 80 of the Chibok schoolgirls, but a rescue mission was deemed too risky.

The members are among 850 people arrested in the country on charges of links to Boko Haram, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2015.

A senior military officer said the emaciated-looking detainees are now being held at Nigeria’s military headquarters in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram.

The bombs, which had been seized from militant group Boko Haram, detonated accidentally and were not planted, police said.

French newspaper Le Monde reported that President François Hollande had authorized “unofficial military action” in the conflict-ridden North African state.