Boko Haram abducts dozen girls in Niger

NIAMEY: Suspected members of Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram abducted around a dozen girls in raids on several border villages in southeastern Niger, a local councillor and an NGO said on Saturday.

"We still don’t know the number but we can estimate a dozen girls have been abducted from different villages," the Diffa regional councillor told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A source close to the regional governor confirmed as much without giving further details.

"The terrorist group Boko Haram abducted 16 young girls in two villages in Toumour commune," said Kaka Touda, a human rights activist with the Alternative Espace Citoyen NGO in Diffa.

Touda said nine girls had been kidnapped in the village of Blaharde and seven more in Bague. One local source said "more than 50" assailants carried out the abductions.

The Boko Haram insurgency is in its ninth year and has left 20,000 people dead and 2.6 million displaced.

The group has also targeted soldiers and civilians in separate attacks in neighbouring Chad and Niger.

The latest abductions come two days after seven local employees of a French drilling firm and a government official were killed in southeast Niger after suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed their compound.