Suspected Boko Haram elements with rockets

A suspected local leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamist group was arrested and several weapons including rocket launchers seized from his home in the town of Diffa in southern Niger on Thursday, security sources said.

The town on the Nigerian border has come under attack from the militants this past week, since Chad deployed hundreds of troops to the area as part of a regional effort to tackle Boko Haram.

The man was identified as Kaka Bonou, a trader known to authorities for suspected involvement in trafficking stolen goods, the security source said.

“Different type of weapons of all calibre including rocket launchers, were found in his house,” one of the Niger military sources told Reuters, requesting to remain anonymous.

Reuters also reported that thousands of civilians have fled their homes in the southeastern Niger town, following waves of cross-border raids and suicide bombings by Nigerian militant group Boko Haram.

Attacks in Niger are deepening a humanitarian crisis in the remote border zone. The area, struggling to feed some 150,000 people who have run to escape violence in northern Nigeria, has seen around 7,000 arrive this week in Zinder, Niger’s second biggest town some 450 km (280 miles) west of Diffa.

Niger’s military said its forces had killed 260 Boko Haram militants and had arrested others in fighting since Feb. 6. A suspected local leader of the group was arrested and several weapons including rocket launchers seized from his home.

The International Rescue Committee, which supplied the population estimates, has teams working around Diffa and Zinder. Matias Meier, country director, said some families in Zinder, one of the poorest regions in Niger, were having to host 20 people, while other displaced were sleeping in the stadium.

A local politician said the flow of people out of Diffa continued on Thursday even though the town was calm