Boko Haram abducts dozen girls in Niger

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