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Local sources reported that 22 civilians were killed following an attack by armed militants on a village in Tillabéri region, western Niger, near the border with Mali.
“Unfortunately, we have 22 dead, among the paramilitaries, in the attack on Motogata village,” explained a local elected official. The attack and the account were confirmed by a resident of an adjacent community.
The perpetrators arrived in the village around 16:00 (local time; 17:00 Greek time) with about twenty motorcycles and immediately “started shooting and killing people”, explained the elected official.
The village of Motogata is located south-west of the Todikiwidi community, thirty kilometers from the town of Oualam, which in turn is located at a distance of about one hundred kilometers north of the capital Niamey.
The vast, unstable region of Tilaberi, with an area of 100,000 square kilometers, straddles the so-called “trilateral border” zone of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.
It is considered a stronghold of jihadist organizations that launch attacks in all three countries and swear allegiance to either al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS). It has been under a state of emergency since 2017.
As part of the anti-jihadist measures, the authorities have—in theory at least—banned the movement of motorcycles day and night and decided to close some markets that they say supplied “terrorists”.
On November 2, 2022, 69 members of a “vigilance committee” (paramilitary) led by the mayor of Banibagu, a community neighboring Todikiwidi, were massacred by gunmen.
And, in January 2021, 100 people were killed between the two rounds of presidential elections, when two villages administered by Todikiwidi municipality were attacked by gunmen on motorcycles.
At least three series of “anti-terrorist” operations by the Niger army have been taking place in the Tilaberi region for years.
In addition, the southeastern part of Niger, which neighbors Nigeria, often turns into a theater of attacks by jihadists of Boko Haram and the so-called Islamic State in West Africa (ISW). Last week, ten Nigerian soldiers were wounded and “dozens” of Boko Haram fighters were killed in fighting in the Lake Chad region, according to the headquarters in Niamey.
Niger has been ruled by a military regime since the end of July, when the coup that overthrew elected president Mohamed Bazoum took place.