The Niger army said it had killed a leader of the terrorist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad basin, where the country borders Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon.
Bakura was killed during a "surgical operation" on an island in the Diffa region of southeast Niger last week, according to an official statement on Thursday.
Boko Haram's terrorist violence against the government and civilians in began in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria, and has to date left more than 40,000 people dead and forced millions of others to flee their homes.
‘Feared leader’
The bitter conflict later spilled across Nigeria's borders, with Niger suffering its first attacks by the group in Bosso, on the shores of the lake, in 2015.
The Niger army said in its statement that Bakura was targeted by a fighter jet early on August 15, calling him a "feared leader" of the terrorist group.
"Very early in the morning of August 15 an air force fighter aircraft launched three targeted and successive strikes on the positions Bakura used to occupy in Shilawa," it added.
Bakura, whose real name was given as Ibrahim Mahamadu, was said to be about 40 years old and originally from Nigeria, the Niger army said.
He joined Boko Haram more than 13 years ago and took over leadership of the group after Shekau's death during the terror group’s infighting in May 2021.
