Fifty-eight dead in ‘barbaric’ attacks in Niger near Malian border

Fifty-eight people were killed in “barbaric” attacks on a bus and neighboring villages in Niger near the country’s border with Mali, the government said on Tuesday.

On Monday afternoon, “groups of armed and as yet unidentified individuals intercepted four vehicles carrying passengers from the weekly Banibangou market to the villages of Chinedogar and Darey-Daye,” the government said in a statement read on television. public.

“The toll of these barbaric acts (is) of 58 dead, one injured, a number of grain silos and two vehicles set on fire and two other vehicles seized,” he added.

No group has claimed responsibility, but Niger grapples with two jihadist campaigns – in the west near Mali and Burkina Faso, and a ten-year-old insurgency in the southeast on the border with Nigeria .

The raids took place in the Tillaberi region located in the “three border zone” – a flashpoint area where the borders of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali converge.

Earlier, a local resident told AFP that the raids started with an attack on a bus going to Chinedogar, in which “about 20 people were killed”.

Another resident said those killed were shopping in Banibangou, a large market town a few kilometers from the Malian border.

“Armed bandits” then attacked villages around 6 p.m., killing around 30 people, a security source said.

The government has announced three days of national mourning starting Wednesday.

He called for “greater vigilance” on the part of the population and reaffirmed its “determination to relentlessly pursue the fight against crime in all its forms”.

Sahel violence

Niger is part of a French-backed alliance of countries in the Sahel region battling militants, some in an Islamic State-aligned group known as ISWAP – an offshoot of Boko Haram.

The Tillaberi region has been the scene of various attacks. By AFP (AFP)

Hundreds of lives have been lost, nearly half a million people have fled their homes and devastating damage has been inflicted.

On January 2, 100 people were killed in attacks on two villages in Mangaize district in Tillaberi.

The massacre, one of the worst in Niger’s history, occurred between two rounds of the country’s presidential election.

In December 2019, 71 Nigerien soldiers died in an attack in Inates, and the following month 89 were killed in an assault on their base in Chinedogar.

Along with central Mali, the lawless three-border zone experiences the most frequent and deadly jihadist attacks in the Sahel region.

French forces working with local troops have stepped up operations in the region since early 2020, following the series of attacks on military camps that have killed hundreds of soldiers.