Residents of Niger's capital Niamey on Wednesday reported hearing gunfire overnight near the presidency, days before new president Mohamed Bazoum is due to take office.

Seven troops and 11 suspected jihadists have died in clashes in a troubled western region of Niger ahead of elections this weekend, the defence ministry said Thursday.

Soldiers in Niger executed dozens of civilians during the counterinsurgency campaign against jihadists in the country's troubled Tillaberi region earlier this year, a probe into the deaths reported.

Niger said Wednesday it had killed 33 Boko Haram "terrorists" and seized vehicles and weapons in an operation in the Lake Chad region in the country's southeast.

Just over 10 percent of Niger's population need humanitarian aid because jihadist violence that forced people to flee their homes has exacerbated the country's food crisis, the UN said Saturday.

France is to send a contingent of counterterror forces to help the army in Niger after militants ambushed a military patrol killing 16, the defense ministry said. 

Niger has launched an army operation to hunt down a kidnapped American aid worker, the west African country's interior minister said Saturday.

About 50,000 people have fled a town in Niger's troubled southeast after deadly attacks by Boko Haram insurgents, the United Nations said Tuesday.

The attacks began Friday against a military post in Bosso in Niger's Diffa region, killing 26 soldiers including two from neighboring Nigeria.

"Take us away from this hell," said Boussam, a mother of seven cradling skeletal goats in Niger's Assaga camp, where thousands of desperate refugees fleeing Boko Haram Islamist insurgents are living in hunger.

She spoke to AFP in the south eastern camp near the border with Nigeria where some 6,000 people are crammed in U.N. tents in baking sun after being displaced by the violence.

At least six civilians were killed and seven injured in an attack by Boko Haram Islamist fighters in Niger on Thursday evening, according to the country's army.

Four of the victims were burned alive and two were shot dead during the attack near the south eastern garrison town of Bosso, close to the border with Nigeria, according to an army statement broadcast on state TV and radio Friday.