NIAMEY, NIGER (AFP) - Islamist fighters killed 71 Niger soldiers in an attack on a military camp near the border with Mali, the Defence Ministry said in a statement on national television on Wednesday (Dec 11).

"A substantial number of terrorists were neutralised" in Tuesday's attack which also left 12 military personnel injured and others missing, the ministry added.

An earlier toll from a security source put the number killed in the assault in Inates in the western Tillaberi region at "more than 60".