2020 Toumour Attacks

Toumour is a village in the Lake Chad region of Niger that was struck by two separate Boko Haram attacks in 2020, part of the broader Boko Haram insurgency that has affected Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger since 2009.

On 15 March 2020, Boko Haram fighters attacked a military post in Toumour. A soldier was injured in the assault, and 50 insurgents were reported killed during the fighting.

A second, larger attack occurred on 12 December 2020, when around 70 Boko Haram militants attacked the village of Toumour at approximately 17:45 GMT. At least 27 people were killed, and several others were reported missing or wounded. The attack lasted about three hours and caused extensive destruction: between 800 and 1,000 houses, the central market, and various vehicles were burnt down. A local elected official was cited as saying that nearly 60% of the village was destroyed.

The Toumour attacks occurred during a period of escalating Boko Haram activity in the Lake Chad Basin in the latter half of 2020, which also included attacks on villages, military convoys, and internally displaced persons camps across Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger. The insurgency in this region has involved both the Abubakar Shekau-led faction generally referred to as "Boko Haram" and the rival Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP), though the December 2020 Toumour attack was attributed specifically to Boko Haram.