Fourteen civilians were killed Sunday in Niger in an attack on a village in the Banibangu community near the border with Mali, an area where civilians are often targeted by jihadists, the Niamey government said Monday.
“This attack, targeting the civilian population, resulted in the death of fourteen people, nine in a field, three in the village and two on their way back from the fields. “One of the injured was taken to a hospital in Niamey,” the Nigerian interior ministry said in a statement read by a public broadcaster.
According to the ministry, the attack was carried out by “unidentified individuals, armed, riding motorcycles” on Sunday “around 15:00” in the village of Uyyeh in the Banibangu district, about 50 kilometers from the border with Mali.
“Security and health measures have been strengthened in the area” and “an investigation is underway” to “find and bring to justice the perpetrators of these cowardly and barbaric attacks,” the interior ministry added.
The Banibangu community is located in the Tilabari district, in the so-called “tri-national border” zone of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, which in recent years has been the scene of bloody attacks by jihadist groups swearing allegiance to al Qaeda or al Qaeda in the Islamic State. ).
In this community, jihadists attacked vehicles returning from a weekly bazaar in mid-March and targeted a village, killing a total of 66 people, according to the official death toll.
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On June 24, nineteen people were killed in attacks on villages in Todikwindi, a community adjacent to Banibangu.
Extremely deadly attacks were carried out in this rural community in two villages in January: about 100 civilians were killed by gunmen on motorcycles, who then fled to neighboring Mali.
The Tilamberi region remains destabilized, despite ongoing efforts to restore security there.
A contingent of 1,200 Chadian army men, known for being the most experienced in the entire region, has been deployed to the transnational border area as part of the G5 Sahel multinational anti-jihadist force, to which Mauritania and Mauritania’s troops are contributing. Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.
