DHAKA: 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 to a regional force battling Boko Haram.

The Nigerian conflict has increasingly drawn in regional states.

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.

‘The pooling of the efforts and resources of concerned countries will contribute without doubt to crushing this group which shows scorn, through its barbaric acts, for the Muslim religion,’ Niger’s parliamentary speaker Adamou Salifou said after the vote, the media report, says the BBC.

BDST: 1556 HRS, FEB 10, 2015