Niger’s parliament has voted to send troops to Nigeria to join the fight against militant Islamist group Boko Haram.
The vote took place after Boko Haram attacked a prison and detonated a car bomb on Monday in the town of Diffa, near Niger’s border with Nigeria.
MPs said parliament unanimously authorised deploying 750 soldiers with a regional force battling Boko Haram.
The Boko Haram has increasingly drawn in Nigeria’s neighbours.
On Saturday Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin agreed to establish a 7,800-strong force to fight the group.
Boko Haram launched its first attacks in Niger last week, and has vowed to create an Islamic state.
Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou, a Muslim, vowed to defeat Boko Haram.
“All the Nigeriens know that these guys are not Muslims. On the contrary, what they are doing is not helping Islam,” he said.
Chadian soldiers near the Nigerian town of Gamboru on 1 February 2015 Chad has already deployed troops to Nigeria
Women who escaped a 2014 Boko Haram attack in Nigeria’s Adamawa state at a camp for displaced people, 31 January The conflict is said to have displaced at least 3.2 million people in Nigeria
The BBC’s reporter in the capital, Niamey, said many people are concerned about the growing threat posed by Boko Haram.
The authorities have imposed an overnight curfew in Diffa and have banned the use of motorcycles, a common mode of transport, to prevent infiltration by the militants, he says.
A journalist in Diffa told a news agency that at least one person was killed and 15 wounded in Monday’s bomb blast at a market.
Suspected Boko Haram militants also hijacked a bus in northern Cameroon, abducting at least 20 people, residents said.
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