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A regional official in Niger said 18 girls had been abducted in two different villages by suspected Boko Haram militants.
Lamido Harouna Moumouni said that 24 attackers abducted 15 girls in the village of Blaharde early Saturday and three others in the village of Bague. This is not far from where suspected extremists killed Wednesday at least seven people on the site of a French drilling company, and near the border with Nigeria.
Moumouni asked the government to do "all that is possible to secure this population, including through dialogue with Boko Haram", saying that people would leave.
Two years ago, about 39 women were abducted in Ngalewa, in the same area.
Nigeria's Boko Haram killed and kidnapped thousands of people during its nine-year insurgency, which then crossed Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
