Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
At least 69 citizens Niger killed, including a local mayor, as a result of the attack ISIS The Sahara branch (ISGS) in the country’s three-border zone with Burkina Faso and Mali.
Niger’s Interior Ministry said the attack took place Tuesday in the village of Adab-Dab, 55 kilometers from Banibangou, west of Tillaberi.
However, the government only confirmed two days later, Thursday (4/11).
“The provisional toll of the attack is 69 dead including the mayor of Banibangou, and 15 survivors,” the Ministry of Home Affairs was quoted as saying. AFP.
According to a statement, the mayor of Banibangou was attacked by an unidentified armed group while traveling with his delegation.
Earlier, local sources said defense forces carrying motorbikes were attacked by armed groups who were also riding motorbikes.
“Heavy armed members of the ISGS (ISIS in the Greater Sahara),” the source said.
Another source said the target of the attack was the local anti-extremist defense force, the Vigilance Committee, led by the mayor of Banibangou.
The attackers then returned to Mali and, according to sources, “carried the bodies of their members.”
A vigilance Committee team was recently formed by locals following a series of attacks on farmers on remote farms by ISIS, a former mayor said.
Troops headed to Adab-Dab to hunt down armed groups who had attacked villages and stolen livestock.
Niger frequently faces extremist insurgency both on its borders with Burkina Faso and Mali, and on its southeastern border with Nigeria.
The insurgency in the West began in 2015. The spillover from it then escalated in 2017, carried out by several groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the so-called ISIS.
Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 420 civilians have died since early 2021 in western Niger as a result of attacks by extremist groups such as ISIS. At least 100 people were even killed in a single attack that occurred in several villages on January 2.
Then in March, 141 members of the Tuareg community were massacred in Tohua, a desert region bordering Mali.
Then in September, Niger’s President Mohamed Bazaoum said attacks on innocent people were a sign that the extremist group was losing power against the army.
(isa/rds)
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