Boko Haram militants kill four, wound two in Niger attack

NIAMEY Militants from the Islamist group Boko Haram killed eight people in an attack on a village in the southeast of Niger, a private local radio station, ANFANI, said on Tuesday.

The group is seeking to carve out an emirate based on a severe interpretation of Islamic law in northeastern Nigeria and has also carried out numerous cross-border attacks into neighboring countries, including Niger.

Further details of the latest Boko Haram attack in the Diffa region late on Monday were not immediately available.

Earlier a regional official told state television that Boko Haram militants, armed with Kalashnikovs, killed four people and injured two others in a separate attack over the weekend on another village in the same region.

About 50 villagers' homes were set ablaze in the attack.

"We have noted four deaths, and two other wounded people were evacuated to the hospital in Diffa," Fougou Boukar, an official for the region, said.

Boko Haram militants killed at least five people in a village in northern Cameroon on Saturday and 18 in another village of Niger's Diffa region on Thursday.

Niger declared a state of emergency in its southern region in October but attackers often flee across the River Komadougou into Nigeria.

(Reporting by Abdoulaye Massalaki; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Alison Williams and Richard Balmforth)