These attacks, in particular targeting trucks carrying food, occur after several months of lull in the immense region of Tillabéri, close to Mali.
Le Monde with AFP
At least eleven civilians were killed in western Niger on Saturday September 22, during several attacks by alleged jihadists occurring after several months of lull in this region close to Mali.
“Three trucks were intercepted Saturday around 11 am by armed men and nine members on board were all murdered. Two other people on a motorcycle were also killed,” a municipal official told AFP Sunday de Banibangou, the town where the attacks took place. The three trucks were attacked on a sandy and deserted road between the city of Banibangou and the locality of Tizigorou, near the border with Mali, explained this source. One of the trucks had just left Banibangou, where he had delivered, the day before, from cement to entrepreneurs, she said.
“According to information at our disposal, there were eleven dead, two burned trucks and another tank,” a deputy for the region confirmed to AFP, indicating that two of the trucks were loaded with food and left in Banibangou.
These attacks come after several months of lull in the Banibangou area, where alleged jihadists had multiplied since 2021 the particularly bloody assaults against civilians in their villages and in their fields.
In February, 18 people were killed in the attack on a truck by armed men on motorbikes in the department of Banibangou. On November 2, 2021, at least 69 members of a vigilance committee (self -defense militia), led by the mayor of Banibangou, had been massacred by armed men, according to the authorities. In October 2021, attackers who came on a motorcycle at the time of evening prayer had killed ten people in a mosque near Tizigorou. And on March 15, 2021, 66 people had been massacred in attacks against vehicles which returned from the large weekly market in Banibangou.
the support of 250 French soldiers
The immense and unstable region of Tillabéri, with an area of 100,000 km 2
é>, is located in the so -called “three borders” area, on the borders of Burkina Faso and Mali. It has been the theater since 2017 of bloody actions of jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group (IS) since 2017. The Nigerian authorities have launched vast operations near the border with Mali, with recent support, as part of a “combat partnership”, 250 French soldiers.
Niger is faced with terrorist violence on several sides of its territory. In the south-east, near Nigeria and Lake Chad, the jihadists of Boko Haram and its dissident branch, the Iswap (Islamic State in West Africa), regularly commit attacks against civilians and rapids against ransom. The Diffa region, border of Nigeria and Chad, is home to 300,000 Nigerian refugees and internal displaced people hunted by the abuses of Boko Haram and Iswap, according to the UN.
Finally, the border area between northern Benin and southern Niger, hitherto spared, has been faced for a few months also with the jihadist threat. In September, armed men attacked a customs station on the Beninese side, killing two.