50 jihadists killed in Niger: official

FIFTY fighters of Nigeria's Islamist group Boko Haram were "neutralised" during an overnight clash in the southeast of neighbouring Niger, the government said on Monday.

The defence ministry said "heavily armed terrorist elements of Boko Haram riding aboard around 20 vehicles" attacked a military post in Toummour, in the conflictwracked Diffa region.

The assailants were repelled in a "spontaneous riposte", the ministry said, giving a provisional casualty toll of one soldier wounded and 50 Boko Haram fighters killed.