At least two Nigerien soldiers were killed in an attack by terrorist group Boko Haram on Saturday night close to Niger's border with Nigeria, said security sources on Sunday, Xinhua reported.
The attack, which occurred in the southwest department of N'Guigmi in the region of Diffa, also injured several solders and continued until Sunday at dawn, said the sources.
The attack in Niger came on the eve of a planned meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and the G5 Sahel leaders in Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, on the sidelines of the African Union (AU) summit.
The leaders were expected to discuss the security situation in the region, including the operationalization of the G5-Sahel joint force.
For more than three years, several localities in the Diffa region, as well as Nigeria's border areas, have been repeatedly attacked by Boko Haram from its Nigerian positions, which have claimed hundreds of civilian and military casualties and rendered thousands internally displaced.
After a relative lull thanks to the large-scale operations undertaken for more than a year by a multinational force composed of the armies of Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria, there has been a recent upsurge in attacks in the area.