Boko Haram kills 32 soldiers in clashes in Niger

International media reports claim that the extremist Boko Haram group has killed thirty Nigerien troops and two Nigerian soldiers in clashes in Niger.

Niger’s defence ministry says "hundreds of assailants" attacked a military post in the south-eastern town of Bosso, on the Nigerian border, on Friday night.

According to reports, a counter-attack on Saturday morning allowed government troops to retake all positions in Bosso, but several have died or been injured "on the enemy's side", as a result.

Boko Haram, which is based in Nigeria, has not commented on the Nigerien defence ministry's statement. The group is currently being tackled by a multinational force, including soldiers from Niger.

In March, six soldiers from Niger's army were killed in a Boko Haram ambush in the south-east.

The group was founded in 2002 and initially focused on opposing Western-style education, with the name of the group literally meaning "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language. The group launched military operations in 2009, killing thousands in north-eastern Nigeria, and abducting hundreds of others, including at least 200 schoolgirls.

The group allied itself with the so-called Islamic State, now calls itself IS's "West African province", and it managed to seize large swathes of land in the north-east, where it declared caliphate. Regional forces have managed to retake most of the territory last year.