NIGER

32 soldiers killed in militant assault

NIAMEY — Niger’s defense ministry said Saturday that Boko Haram extremists attacked a military post near the country’s border with Nigeria, killing at least 32 soldiers. The ministry said hundreds of Boko Haram fighters attacked the post Friday night, killing at least 30 Niger soldiers and two soldiers from Nigeria. It said 67 other soldiers were wounded. The military reclaimed the post Saturday morning. A deputy in the nearby town of Bosso, Adam Boukarna, said the extremists burned homes and stores there and remained in town until 4 a.m. Saturday before fleeing with arms and munitions. He said air and land forces have cleared the area. (AP)

POLAND

Thousands protest right-wing policies

WARSAW — Poland’s two former presidents led tens of thousands of marchers Saturday in Warsaw to protest the right-wing government’s policies and mark 27 years since the ouster of communism in Poland. The Committee for the Defense of Democracy has launched a series of protests against the nationalist government. The policies have strained relations with the European Union and the United States. The government has increased its grip on state institutions, limiting the nation’s Constitutional Tribunal, putting state-owned media under government control, and increasing police surveillance powers. (AP)

FRANCE

Soldiers suspended after Africa attacks

PARIS — France has suspended five members of the military for violence during their deployment in Central African Republic against citizens they were sent to protect, the Defense Ministry announced Saturday. The five could be discharged from the army after an investigation into unspecified violence against two civilians in Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic, in 2014. The inquiry is unrelated to allegations of sexual abuse of children by French soldiers in the Central African Republican, where they were sent to help quell sectarian violence. (AP)

NIGERIA

Officials allegedly looted $10 billion

LAGOS — Nigeria has seized more than $10.3 billion in looted cash and assets in the past year under President Muhammadu Buhari’s anticorruption campaign, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said. In addition, the government is expecting the repatriation of more than $330 million stolen from the public treasury and stashed in banks abroad. Mohammed said most of the money is in Switzerland. He did not identify former and current officials accused of looting public funds, but the government has promised to publish them. (AP)