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“The terrorists killed our husbands, burned our food and stole our cattle,” says Maimouna Moukaila, draped in a large white veil.
The attacks, with gunmen typically attacking villages on motorcycles – and more recently, camels or even bicycles – have raised the specter of famine in Anzourou, western Niger.
Compounding the misery, Moukaila said, health workers have abandoned the area and “many women have lost their newborns due to lack of medical assistance.”
The Anzourou region is made up of some fifty villages and hamlets, part of Tillabéri, a vast area of 100,000 square kilometers (39,000 square miles) on the borders of Mali and Burkina Faso which is home to different ethnic groups such as the Djerma, the Peuls, Touareg and Hausa.
Map of Niger locating the Tillabéri region. By Tupac POINTU (AFP) The region known as the “three borders” straddling the borders of the three counties has long been troubled by land disputes, trafficking, desertification and the fragile presence of the State.
The vast arid region, along with central Mali, has become the worst affected area in the jihadists’ nine-year campaign in the Sahel. Thousands of people have died and tens of thousands have fled their homes.
“We sleep with a knot in our stomachs and a hand on our hearts,” says Abdou Oumarou, from the village of Gadabo. “We jump at the slightest engine noise.”
The mayor of Anzourou, Halidou Zibo, wearing the national colors of Niger on his scarf, said: “Thefts, looting, granary fires and targeted killings continue. Terrorists shoot anything that moves, including children.
A food crisis is “looming”, he warned.
Farmers forced to leave the fields
In March, authorities returned around 12,000 Tillabéri residents to their homes, deploying heavily armed soldiers to protect them.
But things are far from being back to normal.
The last massacre of civilians in Anzourou took place on August 21 in the village of Theim, where armed men arrived on foot and killed 19 worshipers in a mosque.
“Terrorists shoot at anything that moves, including children,” said a local mayor. By BOUREIMA HAMA (AFP / File) The attackers issued an ultimatum for the residents to leave and nearly 2,000 residents fled several villages to seek refuge in Sara-Koira, authorities said.
“Those who dared to go to their fields were killed,” said Hadjia Sibti, president of the Anzourou women’s association. “They are stalking us in our huts and even in mosques.”
Resident Mamoudou Sabo, sporting a short white beard and a faded yellow kaftan, said he was afraid to venture into his fields, preferring to stay in the relative safety of Sara-Koira, who was patrolled by soldiers.
Sabo called for even more security against “bloody terrorists”.
The father of 11, who abandoned his 10-hectare (25-acre) farm, praised the generosity of the people of Sara-Koira who donated plots of land to farmers who fled their fields, allowing them to grow crops. millet, corn and beans.
Politicians in the Tillaberi region are calling for tighter security measures.
They say the jihadists had started riding camels and bicycles instead of motorcycles, which had been banned in the region.
President Mohamed Bazoum made his first visit to the region on Saturday since his election in late February to Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world.
He pledged continued food aid and enhanced security.
Crowds in Sara-Koira await Bazoum, who undertakes to fight “the problem at its root”; by closing the entry points at Inates, on the border with Mali. By BOUREIMA HAMA (AFP) Speaking to Sara-Koira, Bazoum pledged to fight “the problem at its root” by closing the entry points at Inates, a town on the border with Mali which he said was the route taken by ” terrorists “.
On December 10, 2019, a jihadist attack in Inates left 71 Nigerien soldiers dead.
In nearby Tondikiwindi, 100 civilians were killed in January by men who broke into motorcycles before fleeing to the Malian border.
Two years earlier, in the same area, four members of the US special forces and five Nigerien soldiers were killed in an ambush by the Islamic State group.
Since then, “the balance of power has changed considerably” in favor of the army, Mr. Bazoum said.
He argued that the attackers have returned to targeting “unarmed innocents”, committing “large-scale massacres” in remote villages.
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