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.
Intervention from Niger would open a new northern front in the increasingly regional fight against the Islamist insurgents who killed more than a hundred people, including 19 soldiers, on Wednesday in a rampage in the Cameroonian town of Fotokol on Nigeria's border.
The onslaught came a day after Chad sent troops across the frontier to battle the jihadists and recapture the Nigerian town of Gamboru. Chad's army said it had killed more than 200 Boko Haram fighters in the clashes.
He added: "Our consolation is that our attackers also suffered heavy casualties, especially when the fighter jets bombed them as they fled."
"Niger is indeed going to send troops to Nigeria as part of the struggle against Boko Haram," the source said.
African Union leaders have backed plans for a 7,500-strong five-nation regional force to take on the extremists, who control vast swathes of northeast Nigeria.
'A crucial step'
The three-day summit "amounts to a crucial, determining and decisive step in the war that the international community has decided to intensify against Boko Haram," Cameroon's Defence Minister Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo'o said.
Viewing the widening field of Boko Haram activity a direct threat to its national interests, Chad has had troops equipped with tanks and hundreds of other vehicles stationed since Monday on Niger's territory in the Bosso region adjoining the border with Nigeria.
French President Francois Hollande on Thursday called on the international community to help fight extremism in Africa, instead of talking on the sidelines.
"Do your job, don't give lessons, act. Do your duty, no one else will do it in your place," Hollande said.
France is supporting the operations by carrying out reconnaissance flights over border areas of Chad and Cameroon to provide the two nations with intelligence, defence officials in Paris have said.
Boko Haram has seized control of vast tracts of northeastern Nigeria, including the strategic town of Baga in the Lake Chad region where the borders of four countries converge.
Troops from Chad and Niger stationed at a joint military base in Baga withdrew before Boko Haram fighters seized it on January 3.
Nigeria has reacted defensively to the presence of foreign troops on its soil.
"Nigeria's territorial integrity remains intact," defence spokesman Chris Olukolade insisted, claiming national forces had "planned and are driving the present onslaught against terrorists from all fronts in Nigeria, not the Chadian forces".
"Unforgettable Experience": Arshdeep Singh Calls T20 World Cup Final "Favourite" Match Argentina Apologizes To France In Football-Chant Row Cop Injured In Attack In Central Paris, Says French Minister The 'Fake' CrowdStrike Worker Who Crippled Windows Users Worldwide What Recovery Of Austrian Gun 'Steyr AUG' From J&K Terrorists Means After Retest, Haryana NEET Centre With Most Top Scorers Gave This Result... After Retest, Haryana NEET Centre With Most Top Scorers Gave This Result... CSEET 2024: Results Announced For Company Secretary Entrance Test "Trying To Pit One Community Against Another": BJP MP On Newspaper Editorial Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.