Boko Haram fighters on Sunday waged attacks on a barracks in Yobe State and a south-eastern border town in Niger Republic, where a blast killed at least one person and left 10 injured, witnesses and hospital sources said.

The Islamist militants launched their assault around the town of Diffa in Niger before dawn, two days after launching its first major attack on Friday in the area bordering Nigeria, witnesses quoted by AFP said.

The cause of the deadly blast in Diffa was not immediately known, with some sources describing it as a suicide attack while others referred to it as a bomb or a mortar shell.

Members of the terror group were also reported to have launched an attack on a military barracks in Gaida, Yobe State, north-eastern Nigeria.

Although details on the barracks onslaught were sketchy at press time yesterday, sources said they could hear the heavy exchange of gunfire between the terrorists and Nigerian soldiers attempting to defend the military facility.

•Excerpted from a THISDAY report. Photo shows Boko Haram fighters.