(Updates with Niger authorities comment, AFP report of group
claiming responsibility)
NIAMEY/NEW YORK, Dec 14 (Reuters) - An attack blamed on Boko
Haram killed 28 people and burned 800 homes in an attack in
Niger's Diffa region on Saturday, Nigerien authorities and the
United Nations said.
The Islamist militant group has been waging attacks in the
region around Lake Chad since 2009, causing about 250,000 people
to flee, according to U.N. figures.
The latest attack targeted the village of Toumour, less than
20 km (12 miles) from the border with Nigeria, the government
said in a statement.
Of the 28 deaths, "10 were from gunshots, 14 by fire, four
by drowning and around 100 were wounded," government spokesman
Abdourahamane Zakaria said on Monday, declaring a 72-hour period
of national mourning.
Neither the government nor a U.N. statement on the attack
named the perpetrators, but Diffa Governor Issa Lemine said on
Sunday that Boko Haram was responsible.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported the group had claimed
responsibility for the attack in a three-minute video sent to
the agency.
The Boko Haram insurgency erupted in northeastern Nigeria,
but violence frequently spills over into neighbouring Chad,
Niger and Cameroon a little farther to the south.
The bloodshed in Toumour is among the worst the country has
suffered at the hands of the militants, Lemine said on Sunday.
"It is an indescribable tragedy," he said, describing scenes
of panic after the attack, which hit an area hosting 60,000
internally displaced persons and refugees.