Boko Haram 'will be dismantled'

Nigeria insisted on Monday it will crush Boko Haram militants and avoid another election postponement, even as violence raged and the Islamists' leader vowed to defeat the regional force hunting them.

National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki's comments came as Boko Haram launched another attack in neighboring Niger, and reports emerged of 20 people kidnapped and 12 executed in Cameroon.

Niger's parliament voted unanimously on Monday to send 750 troops to join the regional force against the extremists, who have seized swaths of northern Nigeria in a conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2009.