Law enforcement agencies carried out a large-scale operation in several regions of Niger located along the borders with Nigeria and Mali, as a result of which they managed to arrest almost 250 people suspected of links to terrorist groups, the Niger army reported.
The arrests were made in areas where militants of the terrorist groups Boko Haram* and the Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin* have been operating for many years. Among those arrested are people from several foreign countries, but the Niger authorities did not specify their citizenship. Security agencies seized a large amount of drugs from the perpetrators.
The operation is part of large-scale strategic measures aimed at eliminating terrorist and criminal networks in the region. In recent years, the regions of Niger bordering Burkina Faso, Mali, and Nigeria have been areas of high activity of extremist and terrorist groups.
*Terrorist organizations outlawed in Russia and many other states