5 dead in first east Niger Boko Haram attack in 3 months

Five villagers were killed and two others wounded in a Boko Haram attack in eastern Niger, the first in three months carried out there by the jihadist group, a local governor has said.

Governor of the Diffa border region, Dan Dano Mahaman Laouali, told Niger public radio the attack took place on Friday in Toumour.

It is the first attack in the east since early June when Boko Haram launched a major offencive in Bosso, a town in Niger near the border with Nigeria and Chad, before being pushed back by the military.

The attackers on Friday, who battled with locals armed with bows and arrows, also burned several homes before fleeing toward Nigeria after the violence.

Tens of thousands of Nigeriens fled the region after the Boko Haram attack in Bosso on June 23, which killed 26 soldiers.