Road bomb kills two people in Niger

Two people were killed in southeastern Niger on Sunday by a road bomb which exploded as they were passing with donkeys, local sources told AFP.

"Two women were killed and a child was seriously wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated as their donkeys passed near Bosso," in the Diffa region, near Nigeria, a local resident said.

A regional official confirmed that two people had died, without giving further details.

Bosso, on the shores of Lake Chad, is an area subject to frequent jihadist attacks, including by notorious Boko Haram and its rival, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) group.

Last month, suspected Boko Haram militants shot dead 11 farmers in Diffa, a local official said.

Niger, the world's poorest country by the benchmark of the UN's Human Development Index, has been hit hard by the insurgency which began in northern Mali in 2012.