Boko Haram gunmen killed eight people when they attacked two villages in restive northeast Nigeria in an attempt to steal livestock on Friday, local militia said.

The jihadists moved into Modu Ajiri and Bulama Kayiri villages in Borno state to take cattle and sheep but the villagers put up a fight to save their livestock.

"Fighting erupted when the villagers tried to stop the attackers," local militia spokesman Bunu Bukar Mustapha told AFP.

"Eight people were killed in the fight and four others were injured," he said from the state capital Maiduguri, 90 kilometres (55 miles) away.

The militants opened fire on the villagers who were armed with machetes, bows and arrows, cudgels and swords, he said.