Four killed in presumed jihadist attack on hamlet in Niger

Four people were killed Friday and seven were reported missing in an attack attributed to Boko Haram jihadists on a small settlement in southeast Niger, a local official said.

Two of those killed were from Niger and two from Nigeria, said the representative of the Diffa region near the border with northeast Nigeria.

"Seven other people were reported missing, including two children." The attack, which also left one person seriously injured, targeted the hamlet of Garin-Amadou, near the village of Bosso.

The assault was the latest in a series ascribed to the jihadist group which began a bloody insurgency in 2009 that has spread to neighbouring countries, prompting a regional military response.

Bosso, near Lake Chad, has been attacked several times since February 2015.

Boko Haram fighters are active in the Lake Chad basin shared between Niger, Chad, and Nigeria.

On Sunday, a resident of Bosso was killed in a suicide attack blamed on Nigerian Islamists.

And on February 15, seven soldiers from Niger were killed when jihadists attacked their post near Diffa, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of Bosso.

In the decade since Boko Haram first emerged, its deadly insurgency has killed more than 27,000 people in northeastern Nigeria alone and forced another two million from their homes, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis in the region.

Militants have targeted soldiers and civilians alike, and are blamed for abductions of children and employees of foreign companies.