Southern Niger

At least 26 children aged between five and six burnt to death on Monday when their straw and wood classrooms caught fire in southern Niger, seven months after a similar tragedy in the capital Niamey.

Around 25 people have been killed in a Boko Haram attack on a village in southern Niger and subsequent clashes between the Islamist militants and the army, two Niger military officials said.

Around 25 people were killed on Wednesday in a Boko Haram attack on a village in southern Niger and subsequent clashes between the Islamist militants and the army, Niger military officials said.

Fifteen-year-old Ousseina's dream of becoming a nurse is already over. "For me, school's finished," said the frail teenager who sells eggs by a roadstop in the southern Niger town of Maradi.

Suspected Boko Haram militants launched an attack on the prison in the southern Niger town of Diffa late on Saturday, military sources said, in an apparent bid to free fellow members of the Nigerian Islamist group held there.

A regional governor in southern Niger on Thursday ordered the evacuation of the West African nation's inhabited islands on Lake Chad following a deadly attack there by Boko Haram militants last week.

France has found itself the best positioned Western nation to assist in the regional fight against Boko Haram -- but also the most vulnerable to being sucked into an open-ended war, experts say.

French President Francois Hollande is ruling out unilateral military intervention in Libya but says that French forces will strike Islamic extremists leaving the country to bring arms to Africa's Sahel region.

Gunmen in Niger have seized the elder brother of Everton and Nigeria player Joseph Yobo from a hotel in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria, police said.

At least 26 children aged between five and six burnt to death on Monday when their straw and wood classrooms caught fire in southern Niger, seven months after a similar tragedy in the capital Niamey.

Around 25 people have been killed in a Boko Haram attack on a village in southern Niger and subsequent clashes between the Islamist militants and the army, two Niger military officials said.

Around 25 people were killed on Wednesday in a Boko Haram attack on a village in southern Niger and subsequent clashes between the Islamist militants and the army, Niger military officials said.

Fifteen-year-old Ousseina's dream of becoming a nurse is already over. "For me, school's finished," said the frail teenager who sells eggs by a roadstop in the southern Niger town of Maradi.

Suspected Boko Haram militants launched an attack on the prison in the southern Niger town of Diffa late on Saturday, military sources said, in an apparent bid to free fellow members of the Nigerian Islamist group held there.

A regional governor in southern Niger on Thursday ordered the evacuation of the West African nation's inhabited islands on Lake Chad following a deadly attack there by Boko Haram militants last week.

France has found itself the best positioned Western nation to assist in the regional fight against Boko Haram -- but also the most vulnerable to being sucked into an open-ended war, experts say.

French President Francois Hollande is ruling out unilateral military intervention in Libya but says that French forces will strike Islamic extremists leaving the country to bring arms to Africa's Sahel region.

Gunmen in Niger have seized the elder brother of Everton and Nigeria player Joseph Yobo from a hotel in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria, police said.