At least 22 killed in Niger village assaults, sources say
1 min read Armed males killed no less than 22 civilians in southwestern Niger on Sunday, three sources mentioned, lower than per week after unidentified assailants killed 58 villagers in the identical area.
The attackers raided three villages within the Tillabery area, which borders Mali and Burkina Faso. A safety supply mentioned Islamic State fighters have been accountable, whereas two native sources didn’t say who was behind it.
Islamic State’s native affiliate is lively within the zone and has been blamed for earlier assaults that killed dozens of civilians and troopers.
The violence is a part of a wider safety disaster throughout West Africa’s Sahel area, which can also be fuelled by militants linked to al Qaeda and ethnic militias.
Alfouzazi Issintag, mayor of Tillia, the agricultural commune to which the villages belong, confirmed to Reuters that there had been “a lot of deaths”, however didn’t say what number of.
Last Monday, armed males killed no less than 58 civilians in Tillabery once they intercepted a convoy coming back from a weekly market and attacked a close-by village.
Suspected militants additionally killed no less than 100 civilians on Jan. 2 in raids on two villages in Tillabery, one of many deadliest episodes within the nation’s latest historical past.
