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Of: TT
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Photo: Carley Petesch / AP / TT
A woman stands outside a dusty airfield in Niger, where unrest has escalated since the presidential elections in late December. Stock Photography.
About 100 civilians have been killed and many injured in two coordinated attacks on towns in western Niger, near the border with Mali.
This is confirmed by Prime Minister Brigi Rafini in a televised speech.
– There are around 70 dead in the village of Tchombangou and another 30 in the village of Zaroumdareye, says Almou Hassane, mayor of the municipality where the villages are located.
Hassane adds that 75 other people were injured and that he believes Islamist extremists are behind the attacks, which took place on Saturday.
– The terrorists arrived driving about 100 motorcycles, says Almou Hassane.
The two villages are located in the Tillaberi region, about twelve miles north of the country’s capital, Niamey, and close to the border with Mali and Burkina Faso.
Saturday’s attacks are the latest in a series of acts of violence that have long plagued the Tillaber region. The unrest appears to have increased further in relation to the presidential elections in late December.
According to local government officials, the attacks took place at the time when Mohamed Bazoum, a former minister and close ally of outgoing President Mahamadou Issoufou, was declared the winner of the first round of the elections. A second round of elections is scheduled for February 20.
Extremists linked to IS and al-Qaeda terrorist movements routinely carry out deadly attacks in the West African country. Last year, hundreds of people were killed in such attacks, many of them along the border regions with Mali and Burkina Faso and on the southern border with Nigeria.
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