Niger govt confirms 137 lifeless in village assaults close to Mali

Gunmen aboard bikes have attacked a collection of villages close to Niger’s troubled border with Mali, leaving no less than 137 individuals lifeless within the deadliest violence to strike the African nation in latest reminiscence, the federal government introduced Monday.
The newest village massacres come amid a harmful escalation in assaults following the election of Niger’s new president, Mohamed Bazoum, a number of weeks in the past.
Government spokesman Abdourahmane Zakaria confirmed the newest killings came about Sunday, the identical day Niger’s Constitutional Court formally declared Bazoum because the winner of February’s election. He is because of take workplace on April 2 amid a quickly deteriorating state of affairs in Niger, lengthy destabilized by the Islamic insurgency in neighboring Mali.
In January, no less than 100 individuals have been killed within the western villages of Tchombangou and Zaroumdareye, the identical day that Niger introduced the presidential election would go to a second spherical on Feb. 21. Another wave of assaults lower than every week in the past killed no less than 66 others.

There have been no claims of accountability for the latest assaults on villages in Niger, though Islamic extremists hardly ever say they’re behind violence when it kills civilians.
Niger and neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali are battling the unfold of lethal extremist violence, together with from the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, which has killed hundreds of individuals and displaced a whole lot of hundreds regardless of the presence of hundreds of regional and worldwide troops.
Not solely are jihadis energetic within the Tillaberi area, however the counterterrorism offensives in opposition to these extremists have helped give rise to ethnic militias, analysts say. Intercommunal tensions have been exacerbated in consequence, notably close to the border between Mali and Niger.