100 people killed in attacks on Niger villages, says prime minister
Rafini introduced the dying toll in remarks broadcast on nationwide tv on Sunday from a go to to the zone, close to the border with Mali. He didn’t say who was accountable.
Security sources stated on Saturday that at the least 70 civilians had been killed in simultaneous raids by suspected Islamist militants on the villages of Tchombangou and Zaroumdareye.
Niger has additionally seen tit-for-tat killings between rival ethnic communities which were stoked by the jihadist violence and competitors for scarce assets.
Saturday’s attacks got here on the identical day that the electoral fee introduced the outcomes from the primary spherical of the election to switch President Mahamadou Issoufou, who’s stepping down after a decade in energy.
Ruling get together candidate Mohamed Bazoum, who completed in first, expressed his condolences on Sunday to the victims.
The attacks, he stated in a video he posted on social media, “remind us that terrorist groups constitute a grave threat to cohesion within communities unlike any other”.
Bazoum will face former President Mahamane Ousmane in a second spherical run-off anticipated on Feb. 21.
The president of neighboring Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, condemned the killings and described the incident as “another clarion call for united action by African leaders against terrorism.”
“We are facing grave security challenges on account of the evil campaign of indiscriminate violence by terrorists in the Sahel and only united action can help us defeat these vicious enemies of humanity,” stated Buhari in Abuja on Sunday, based on an announcement from the State House.
The United Nations strongly condemned the terrorist attacks, which “led to the killing and injuring of many innocent civilians.”
“I express my condolence to the Niger Mission to the UN and the people of Niger,” stated the UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir in a tweet on Sunday.
The Secretary-General, António Guterres, stated in an announcement that he hopes the Nigerien authorities will “spare no effort in identifying and swiftly bringing the perpetrators of this heinous act to justice while enhancing the protection of civilians.”
