100 civilians shot dead by militants in Niger ‘revenge attack’
Niamey, Niger: A hundred civilians were killed in attacks by suspected militants in the west African nation of Niger, according to government officials.
Armed men shot men and boys in what was said to be a revenge attack on the villages of Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumadareye. The villages are in the south-western region of Tillabéri, where civilians have increasingly come under attack in the past two years.
"They opened fire on everybody," said Jahafar Koudize, a resident of Tchoma Bangou who managed to escape.
Saturday's attack, which came just a week after Niger's presidential election, is one of the country's deadliest ever. Prime Minister Brigi Rafini, in remarks broadcast on Sunday (Niger time) on national television from a visit to the area of the assaults, put the death toll at 100 but did not say who was responsible, Reuters reported.
In December 2019 and January 2020, Nigerien security forces suffered huge losses in the same region, which is also where four US Special Forces soldiers were killed alongside five of their Nigerien colleagues in 2017.
No group has claimed responsibility for the killings, but the militants who have recently been making inroads into Tillabéri are with the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, a franchise of the Islamic State group.
Outgoing Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou.Credit:AP
The entire region has become steadily more dangerous for many of those living in it.
Since rebels and armed Islamic fighters took control of cities in neighbouring Mali in 2012, the terrorist threat has spread across the Sahel, a strip of land south of the Sahara. At the same time, military forces in several Sahelien countries, including Niger, have carried out grave abuses.
Niger's efforts to contain the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara have been unsuccessful, experts say, and security forces are increasingly pulling back from the region.
Koudize, the Tchoma Bangou resident, said that he had run away with his wife and five children but that the armed men had killed as many of the village's boys and men as they could.
"We tried to defend ourselves as best we could — two of us were armed," he said. "But when they killed those two, lots of us fled with our families."
Koudize said that on December 15, three armed men had come to try to collect money from the villagers — a "tax" that they impose on communities in the area. Speaking in Zarma, he used the word "izifuto" to describe the men, a term Nigeriens translate variously as terrorist, jihadi or bandit.
The villagers killed the men, Koudize said.
"That's what pushed the jihadists to come in force to take revenge on the village," he said.
Everyone in the area was fed up with the constant extortion, Koudize said.
"All the villagers in the area decided to fight the terrorists, because even if the authorities send soldiers to protect us, it's just for a couple of days," he said. "We can't live as prisoners anymore."
Niger held the first round of its presidential election December 27, and the vote is expected to result in the country's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power.
President Mahamadou Issoufou is stepping down after serving the two terms allowed under the constitution. The governing party candidate, Mohamed Bazoum, will face a former president, Mahamane Ousmane, in a runoff to be held in February.
The New York Times
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