100 Dead In Attacks On Two Western Niger Villages

Niamey, Niger:

“Terrorists” killed round 100 individuals in two villages in western Niger, the newest in a string of civilian massacres which have rocked the jihadist-plagued Tillaberi area, an area mayor stated Sunday.

The assaults on the villages of Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumadareye occurred Saturday simply as first-round presidential outcomes had been introduced.

They had been waged by “terrorists who came riding about 100 motorcycles,” stated Almou Hassane, the mayor of the Tondikiwindi commune that administers each villages.

“There were up to 70 dead in Tchoma Bangou and 30 dead in Zaroumadareye,” he instructed AFP, including he had simply returned from the scene of the assaults.

The two villages are 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of the capital Niamey.

“There have also been 75 wounded, some of whom have been evacuated to Niamey and to Ouallam for treatment,” Hassane stated.

The attackers break up into two columns to hold out simultaneous assaults on the 2 villages, which lie seven kilometres (4 miles) aside, the mayor added.

Local elected officers first reported the raids on Saturday, however the dying depend was unclear, with one supply placing it at round 50.

Issoufou Issaka, a former authorities minister who comes from the area, stated the jihadists had carried out the double bloodbath after native individuals had lynched two of their quantity. He gave an estimated dying depend of 83.

– “Cowardly and barbaric”-

One senior regional official stated the assault was carried out at noon (1100 GMT), on the similar second the outcomes of the primary spherical of legislative and presidential election had been introduced.

Election officers introduced that ruling occasion candidate and former minister Mohamed Bazoum received the primary spherical of Niger’s presidential vote, which was held final weekend. Bazoum has promised to step up the combat in opposition to the jihadists.

Outgoing president Mahamadou Issoufou expressed his condolences to the individuals of the 2 villages in an announcement on Twitter through which he additionally condemned the “cowardly and barbaric attack”.

The two villages are within the huge and unstable Tillaberi area, which is positioned within the “tri-border” space, the place the porous borders of Niger, (*100*) and Burkina Faso converge. The space has suffered jihadist assaults for years.

Four thousand individuals throughout the three nations died in 2019 from jihadist violence and ethnic bloodshed stirred by Islamists, based on the UN.

Seven Nigerien troopers had been killed in an ambush in Tillaberi on December 21.

Travel by motorcycle has been banned in Tillaberi since final January in a bid to stop incursions by extremely cellular jihadists driving on two wheels.

A landlocked state positioned within the coronary heart of the Sahel, Niger can also be being hammered by jihadists from Nigeria, the cradle of a decade-old insurgency launched by Boko Haram.

Boko Haram claimed accountability for an assault on December 12, that left 34 individuals useless within the village of Toumour, in southeastern Niger close to the border with Nigeria.

Last month 34 villagers had been massacred within the southeastern area of Diffa, additionally on the Nigerian border, the day earlier than municipal and regional elections that had been repeatedly delayed due to poor safety.

The second spherical of the presidential election is scheduled for February 20.