‎Boko Haram Islamists shot dead four people and abducted five others in an ambush on a highway in northeastern Nigeria, local vigilantes said on Monday.

Several gunmen opened fire on a bus and a car near Nwajurko village in Borno State on Sunday, killing four passengers and seizing survivors who tried to flee, according to witnesses.

Nigeria said Friday it would step up domestic arms manufacture for the military to cut its reliance on foreign weaponry in its fight with Boko Haram Islamists.

President Muhammadu Buhari instructed the Defense Ministry to create "a modest military industrial complex for the local production of weapons to meet some of the requirements of the country's armed forces", his office said in a statement.

Guinean President Alpha Conde said Wednesday that the country is ready to help in the regional fight against Islamist militants from Boko Haram.

"We are ready to provide any assistance asked of us... in the fight against Boko Haram," Conde told a press conference in Niger's capital Niamey at the end of a two-day visit.

Suspected Boko Haram Islamists have kidnapped 135 people in a raid on a village in northern Cameroon which left eight villagers dead, local sources said Wednesday. 

The raid took place before dawn on Tuesday in the village of Chakamari in a region known as the Extreme North, which borders Boko Haram strongholds in neighboring Nigeria.

Around 12,000 Nigerians said to have been expelled from Cameroon after fleeing Boko Haram jihadists have begun returning home, authorities in Abuja said on Wednesday.

Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said it had received 1,121 of the returnees at the Sahuda border post in northeastern Adamawa state.

Nigeria's military said Monday it had "besieged" Boko Haram positions in the Islamist militant group's northeastern heartland after setting free 178 hostages, mainly women and children.

The ongoing operation has led to the capture of a Boko Haram commander, according to the army, while a "large number" of the extremists have been killed in air strikes.

Boko Haram fighters killed 13 people in an attack on Malari village in northeast Nigeria's restive Borno state early Sunday, witnesses said.

Local farmer Moha Saleh said 27 people were also injured in the attack, which began when the Islamist militants stormed the village at around 1:00 am (0000 GMT).

Nigeria said Sunday it had carried out air strikes in the northeast of the country to repel an attack by Boko Haram and had killed a "large number" of the Islamist extremists.

The air raids came as Nigeria and its neighbors prepared to launch a new multinational force to combat Boko Haram, in the face of the group's escalating violence in the region.

Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi announced he will send 800 troops to join a new multinational force tasked with fighting Boko Haram militants after meeting with his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari Saturday.

Buhari, who was sworn in on May 29, is facing a particularly deadly surge of Islamist violence at home, with more than 800 people killed in north-eastern Nigeria in the last two months.

At least 10 people were killed when Boko Haram Islamist gunmen raided a village in Nigeria's northeastern Yobe state in a revenge attack against local vigilantes, an official said Friday.

Some 32 gunmen on motorcycles raided the village of Kukuwa-Gari at around 10:30 pm (2130 GMT) on Wednesday, killing 10 people including two women, said Baba Nuhu, a member of the local government council.