Chad

Niger's parliament has unanimously approved the deployment of troops to northern Nigeria as part of a regional offensive against Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has launched several cross-border attacks in recent days.
   

Nigeria's Boko Haram fighters launched a new attack in neighbouring Niger on Feb. 9, as parliament in Niamey was set to vote on joining a regional force against the Islamists.        

Niger is set to send troops to Nigeria for the multi-national battle against Boko Haram after scores of people were killed in a fresh onslaught by the Islamist fighters in a key border town.

Cameroon soldiers clashed with Boko Haram fighters in the border town of Fotokol on Feb. 4 as the Islamists fled an offensive by Chad's army, security sources said.
 

Nigeria's military on Feb. 1 repelled a Boko Haram assault on the key city of Maiduguri as violence raged across the country's northeast just two weeks before national elections.
 
The hours-long attack on the strategic capital of Borno state was the Islamists' second attempt to take Maiduguri in a week.    

Nigeria's top security official on Friday ruled out the need for a United Nations or African Union-backed force to fight Boko Haram, saying the country and its partners could handle the threat.
      

The head of Boko Haram -- the enigmatic Abubakar Shekau -- has openly taunted the countries being menaced by the armed Islamist group as they call for a united effort to crush it.
      

Hundreds of people from four villages near the devastated Nigerian town of Baga have been forced to flee after a warning from Boko Haram militants, witnesses and community leaders said Jan. 20.
      
News of the exodus from Kekenu, Budur, Yoyo and Mile 90 villages came as Niger hosted a meeting on how to fight the rebels as concern mounted at the threat to regional security.

Boko Haram militants have killed dozens of people and burned down homes in the northeast Nigerian town of Baga in the past two days, in a second killing spree since seizing control there at the weekend, witnesses said on Jan. 8.
 

The list assembled annually by the economic and financial magazine shows that Montenegro has fallen four places compared to 2013, although it is still ahead of a number of European Union member countries, such as Greece, which is in 51st place.