Niamey, Niger:
“Terrorists” killed round one hundred human beings in villages in western Niger, the brand new in a string of civilian massacres which have rocked the jihadist-plagued Tillaberi area, a neighborhood mayor stated Sunday.
The assaults at the villages of Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumadareye passed off Saturday simply as first-spherical presidential outcomes have been introduced.
They have been waged with the aid of using “terrorists who got here driving approximately one hundred motorcycles,” stated Almou Hassane, the mayor of the Tondikiwindi commune that administers each villages.
“There have been as much as 70 useless in Tchoma Bangou and 30 useless in Zaroumadareye,” he advised AFP, including he had simply lower back from the scene of the assaults.
The villages are a hundred and twenty kilometres (seventy five miles) north of the capital Niamey.
“There have additionally been seventy five wounded, a number of whom had been evacuated to Niamey and to Ouallam for treatment,” Hassane stated.
The attackers break up into columns to perform simultaneous assaults on the 2 villages, which lie seven kilometres (4 miles) apart, the mayor added.
Local elected officers first stated the raids on Saturday, however the loss of life remember become unclear, with one supply placing it at round 50.
Issoufou Issaka, a former authorities minister who comes from the area, stated the jihadists had completed the double bloodbath after neighborhood human beings had lynched in their number. He gave an predicted loss of life remember of 83.
– “Cowardly and barbaric”-
One senior local reputable stated the assault become completed at midday (1100 GMT), on the equal second the outcomes of the primary spherical of legislative and presidential election have been introduced.
Election officers introduced that ruling birthday birthday celebration candidate and previous minister Mohamed Bazoum gained the primary spherical of Niger’s presidential vote, which become held remaining weekend. Bazoum has promised to step up the combat in opposition to the jihadists.
Outgoing president Mahamadou Issoufou expressed his condolences to the human beings of the 2 villages in a assertion on Twitter wherein he additionally condemned the “cowardly and barbaric assault“.
The villages are withinside the great and volatile Tillaberi area, that’s placed withinside the “tri-border” place, in which the porous borders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso converge. The place has suffered jihadist attacks for years.
Four thousand human beings throughout the 3 countries died in 2019 from jihadist violence and ethnic bloodshed stirred with the aid of using Islamists, consistent with the UN.
Seven Nigerien infantrymen have been killed in an ambush in Tillaberi on December 21.
Travel with the aid of using bike has been banned in Tillaberi for the reason that remaining January in a bid to save you incursions with the aid of using incredibly cellular jihadists driving on wheels.
A landlocked nation placed withinside the coronary heart of the Sahel, Niger is likewise being hammered with the aid of using jihadists from Nigeria, the cradle of a decade-antique insurgency released with the aid of using Boko Haram.
Boko Haram claimed obligation for an assault on December 12, that left 34 human beings useless withinside the village of Toumour, in southeastern Niger close to the border with Nigeria.
Last month 34 villagers have been massacred withinside the southeastern area of Diffa, additionally at the Nigerian border, the day earlier than municipal and local elections that were time and again behind schedule due to bad security.