President Donald Trump says the U.S. launched a deadly strike against Islamic State forces in Nigeria, after spending weeks accusing the West African country's government of failing to rein in the persecution of Christians.

A bomb has exploded during prayers at a mosque in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing five people.

The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $346 million weapons sale to Nigeria to help improve security in the sub-Saharan country.

Islamic extremists have killed nine people and injured four in northeastern Nigeria's Borno state, authorities report.

The resurgence of Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria's northeast is raising fears about a risk of returning to the peak Boko Haram-era insecurity in the region.

Chad’s presidency says unidentified assailants have killed at least 40 soldiers during an overnight attack on a military base in the country’s west.

Residents in northeastern Nigeria say at least 100 villagers were killed when suspected Boko Haram Islamic extremists opened fire on a market, on worshippers and in people’s homes.

Recent suicide bombings in northeastern Nigeria have raised questions about the country's claim that it has degraded extremists whose insurgency since 2009 has killed more than 35,000 people directly and displaced more than 2 million.

Nigeria's army says it has rescued hundreds of hostages, mostly women and children, who had been held captive for months or years by Boko Haram extremists in the country's northeast.

Hundreds of people remain homeless in Nigeria's capital of Abuja after losing their shanties to government bulldozers.

The Nigerian military says it has rescued two young women who were kidnapped nine years ago by the jihadi militant group Boko Haram.

A new report by the U.N.’s international development agency says that sub-Saharan Africa is the new global epicenter of violent Islamic extremism and that people are increasingly joining as a result of economic factors and less by religious ones.

On April 14, 2014, fighters for the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram stormed a school in the Chibok community of Nigeria's Borno state and abducted 276 girls who had been preparing for science exams.

Aid agencies are warning that acute malnutrition is on the rise in northeast Nigeria.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has lauded Nigerian authorities' efforts to reintegrate repentant Boko Haram militants, saying the initiative is “the best thing we can do for peace.”.

A top U.N. official says that the Islamic extremist insurgency in northeast Nigeria is a “very, very dangerous (and) very threatening” crisis that needs more than $1 billion in aid in 2022 to assist those hit by the decade-long conflict.

Seven years after Boko Haram extremists abducted more than 270 schoolgirls in northeast Nigeria, two of the more than 100 still being held by the rebels returned this month, renewing the hope of parents who have all but given up on the long wait for the return of their children.

Zamfara state governor Bello Matawalle announced that 279 girls who were abducted last week from a boarding school in the northwestern Zamfara state have been released Tuesday. Bello Matawalle said that 279 girls had been freed after being abducted from the Government Girls Junior Secondary School in Jangebe town on Friday. It gladdens my heart to announce the release of the abducted students,” Matawalle said in a post on Twitter early Tuesday. In December, more than 300 schoolboys from a secondary school in Kankara, in northwestern Nigeria, were taken and later released. The government has said no ransom was paid for the students’ release.

A family member of a freed schoolboy cries as she waits for a reunion with her son in Katsina Nigeria Friday Dec. 18, 2020. This time, the government deployed forces quickly after the boys’ kidnapping and the abductors rapidly found themselves surrounded, Bukarti said. Later, Boko Haram made claims that they had penetrated parts of the northwest. Boko Haram may well extend their reach into the northwest, he said, adding that they also got publicity. “This was a major propaganda point and that’s what Boko Haram and terrorist groups survive on,” he said.

Shoes of the kidnapped students from Government Science Secondary School are seen inside their class room Kankara, Nigeria, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)(AP) – More than 300 schoolboys abducted last week by armed men in northwest Nigeria have been released, a government official said Thursday. For more than 10 years, Boko Haram has engaged in a bloody campaign to introduce strict Islamic rule in Nigeria’s north. The video circulated widely on WhatsApp and first appeared on a Nigerian news site, HumAngle, that often reports on Boko Haram. In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped more than 270 schoolgirls from a government boarding school in Chibok in northeastern Borno state.

Anxiety has overwhelmed many parents in Nigeria’s northern Kankara village who await word on their sons who are among the more than 330 kidnapped by extremists from a government boys’ school last week. Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist rebels have claimed responsibility for the abduction of the students from the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara. Across Nigeria, people are closely following the fate of the kidnapped boys and many criticize the government for the continuing extremist violence. For more than 10 years, Boko Haram has engaged in a bloody campaign to introduce strict Islamic rule. In February 2014, 59 boys were killed when Boko Haram attacked the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi in Yobe State.

Parents of the missing Government Science secondary school students wait for news on their children in Kankara , Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Neither official said whether the negotiations are with Boko Haram or another group. In February 2014, 59 boys were killed during a Boko Haram attack on the Federal Government College Buni Yadi in Yobe State. It was originally believed that the attackers were bandits, who sometimes work with Boko Haram. If Boko Haram is proven to be behind the abduction, it could mean a new wave of religious extremism is on the rise in Nigeria.