YAOUNDE, Cameroon: Nigeria’s Boko Haram extremists have abducted at least eight girls and killed seven hostages after seizing a public bus in one of their most brazen attacks inside neighboring Cameroon, residents said Tuesday.

Boko Haram, who kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria last year in an incident that drew international condemnation, have taken eight Cameroonian girls hostage, said Chetima Ahmidou, the principal of a school in the area. The girls range in age from 11 to 14 and come from the town of Koza, he said.

The bus attack took place Sunday about 11 miles (18 km) from Cameroon’s border with Nigeria. Seven other hostages were slain and their bodies scattered near the border, said Ahmidou, whose brother was the bus driver and was among those killed.

Boko Haram has fought a five-year insurgency against the Nigerian government, launching scores of attacks that left 10,000 people dead last year alone. In recent weeks, the terror group has intensified its assaults on neighboring countries. Cameroon, Niger, Benin and Chad all have pledged to send soldiers to be in an 8,750-strong multinational force that aims to squash the extremists.

On Monday, Niger’s Parliament voted to approve supporting the mission. The vote came just hours after a car bombing in the town of Diffa, which was blamed on Boko Haram, who had launched three other attacks on the town since Friday.

Meanwhile, Niger’s Parliament has unanimously approved sending troops to northern Nigeria as part of a regional offensive against the militant group Boko Haram that has launched several cross-border attacks in recent days.

Security sources said soldiers in Diffa, a town on Niger’s border with Nigeria, shot dead a suicide bomber heading on foot toward a military base and warned that militants had infiltrated groups of civilians who had crossed into Niger.

Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin agreed at the weekend to send a joint force of 8,700 troops to battle the militant group, which has killed thousands of people and kidnapped hundreds more in its bid to carve out a caliphate.

Nigeria postponed its Feb. 14 presidential election by six weeks, citing security concerns.

In the last few days, Niger has massed more than 3,000 troops in Diffa on its southeastern border with Nigeria, awaiting approval to go on the offensive.

“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 late on Monday.

The vote was supported by all 102 deputies present.