At least 60 killed in jihadist attack on border

Nine people are missing and 15 survived jihadist attacks in Tilaberi, Nigeria’s “tri-national border” area with Burkina Faso and Mali

Several dozen villagers , members of militia self-defense, including the mayor of the community Banimpangkou, were killed Tuesday in Niger by men alleged jihadists in Tillaberi, the area of the “tri-border” Niger with Burkina Faso and Mali, today reported local officials and sources in the French Agency and Reuters.

“As a result of the attack, almost 60 people were killed, nine were missing and 15 survived. “The mayor of Banibangu is among the dead and his body has been found,” he told AFP. an official of the Tilabery district.

According to a local source, “60 members” of armed militias from several villages in the Banibango community, the so-called “Vigilance Committees”, were killed during this “terrorist attack” aimed at “84 members of the vigilante committees, who were moving on motorcycles, headed mainly by the mayor “ of the city.

The prefect of a neighboring county confirmed to Reuters the death toll.

The members of these committees “clashed in Adab-Dab, a location about 55km northwest of Banibango, with members of the heavily armed Islamic State jihadist organization (EIGS) ” and also rode motorcycles, the committee said. same source. The perpetrators returned “to Mali, taking the bodies of their fighters,” he said.

A security source “confirmed” the attack “which took place on Tuesday around 9:30 local time” without giving an account of the victims.

According to a former mayor of the area, the villagers had recently formed a self-defense committee to protect farmers who are regularly targeted by gunmen in their fields.

Since the beginning of the year, so-called jihadists have escalated deadly attacks on civilians in Banibangu, an enclosed area in the northeastern part of Tilamberi district.

This vast and volatile 100,000-square-kilometer area is located in the “tri-national border” area of ​​Niger with Burkina Faso and Mali, the scene of recent bloody attacks by jihadist groups swearing allegiance to either Al Qaeda or Islamic State (IS). .